BENGALURU: In order to bring more transparency and financial discipline, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has issued a circular to all its employees that says that if their biometric attendance system is not linked with Aadhar, they won’t be receiving salary from July.According to the official sources, with no proper monitoring system, salary has been credited to the dead employees too. A few BBMP staff members who do not exist are also getting salary. Nobody knows their whereabouts.
“For contract pourakarmikas, contractor would claim more than the actual number of pourakarmikas and get more salary. To put an end to such issues, Aadhar enabled biometric system was proposed,’’ said sources.This system will reduce irregularities in BBMP, according to officials. “BBMP has over 35,000 employees including Pourakarmikas. Many of these employees are working on contract, some even on deputation. There is no discipline here. The Cadre and Recruitment Rules are very old. There are many old posts which are not relevant and are still there and at the same time there are some new-era posts under contract system. There are so many irregularities which is resulting in financial loss,’’ sources from the BBMP said.
The Biometric attendance was there in BBMP head office for sometime. However, in November 2017, the then BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad had extended this to all the zones and other offices. This year, in February during the BBMP budget, the Palike announced that they would make Aadhar enabled biometric attendance system mandatory. Since then BBMP authorities had been sending circulars to all the employees in eight zones to link their Aadhar to biometric, but even then, the compliance was low.
On June 20, Additional Commissioner (Administration) Nalini Atul issued an official note to all zonal heads and other concerned officials to implement Aadhar-based biometric attendance system at their offices. His official note states, “Inspite of many circulars and reminders issued to implement, it has been brought to our notice that some employees have not linked their biometric attendance to Aadhar.”
Additional Commissioner also said concerned officials should install Aadhar-based biometric finger authenticator instrument and details have to be sent to the head office on or before June 27, failing which salary of employee will be held from July. Speaking to The New Indian Express, “Like any change in a new system, there will be initial hiccups and resistance, which will eventually be sorted out. Also, under this system, whoever does not use their thumb impression to mark biometric attendance , that particular day will be considered as leave,’’ he said.