Now going late to government offices will invite disciplinary actions

The Indian Government took a note of ‘habitual late-comers’ and has decided to crap a whip on government servants in this regard. The Centre has warned them of disciplinary action and asked for officials at all levels to maintain punctuality.

To maintain punctuality, the Centre had introduced Aadhaar enabled Bio-metric Attendance System (AEBAS) in Central Government offices, including attached/ sub-ordinate offices, last year to replace the manual system of marking of attendance to ensure punctuality is to be implemented in all Ministries.

"This Department on November 21, 2014 and January 28, 2015 while recognizing that the Biometric Attendance System is only an enabling platform had, inter-alia, stated that there was no change in the instructions relating to office hours, late attendance etc," the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has said in a circular issued to all ministries today, titled 'Observance of punctuality in office.".

"In this connection attention is invited to Rule 3(1)(ii) of CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964 which stipulates that every Government servant shall at all times maintain devotion to duty. Habitual late attendance is viewed as conduct unbecoming of a Government servant and disciplinary action may be taken against such a Government servant. It is also added that punctuality in attendance is to be observed by Government servants at all levels. It is also requested that the necessary directions may be issued to all employees to mark their attendance in BAS portal on regular basis," the DoPT circular, which was issued on June 22, read.

As per a report by Economic Times, nearly 1.3 lakh central government employees are registering their attendance on the AEBAS system.

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