HYDERABAD: Walk into the office of Secunderabad Cantonment Board and you are most likely to be welcomed by empty seats. Residents of cantonment area allege that officials and staff are never present at the SCB office to address their grievances. Earlier in January 2018, SCB had introduced a biometric system of attendance for 150 permanent employees working at the main office but within two months removed all the equipment. On the pretext of field work they don’t come to the office, residents allege.
M Madhukar, a resident of Bowenpally, has been visiting the SCB office for the last one week but could not meet officials. “Everyday several of us wait here for hours to meet the officials. There is no point in waiting. The employees say the official concerned has gone on a field visit,” said Madhukar who was seen waiting at the SCB office on Friday.
Within two months of introducing the attendance system the equipment was removed. Employees are learnt to have objected to the attendance system and subsequently led to going back to the old attendance system. Another activist, Open Secunderabad Cantonment All Roads (OSCAR) spokesperson S Chandrasekhar said “,We visited SCB office three times to meet the SCB CEO to submit representations on roads closures issue. But surprisingly the CEO is never available in the office.”
J Ramakrishna, vice president, SCB, when asked, confirmed that the biometric system was set aside due to poor response from employees. He said: “It is true that employees are not available at the main office and are not attending to public grievances. This is a waste of public money. We have given representations to the defence ministry on this issue and not heard from them yet.”
According to him, the situation has come to a level where there are no visiting hours for aggrieved parties at SCB. While SCB CEO SVR Chandrasekhar was not available for a quote, another official KV Ramana Rao, in-charge of administration, said “We have installed biometric attendance system in four departments. In some departments, the BAS is not working due to technical issues.” Further, he claimed that officials visited the field in the afternoon and wouldn’t be available then.