The defunct bio-metric finger scan reader in the Margao Municipal building.
Photo Credits: The Goan
MARGAO
Will the Margao Municipal Council switch over to the biometric finger scan reader for recording its employees' attendance from December 1 or will the Digambar Kamat-controlled civic body continue to defy the directions issued by the Department of Urban Development headed by Urban Development Minister Vishwajit Rane by not enforcing the biometric attendance?
Director of Urban Development Gurudas Pilarnekar had in August last issued a circular to the Chief Officers of municipal bodies to implement the biometric finger scan attendance with immediate effect. The circular had mandated the municipal councils to record the attendance of the staff and employees on the biometric fingerprint readers or not to release the payment of salaries.
It’s now three months since Pilarnekar had sent the circular to the municipal bodies. Every time Margao Municipal Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar was questioned by the media when the Margao civic body would switch over to biometric attendance, he replied saying it would start in November.
After the Chief Officer failed to keep the date after he cited a host of reasons for the failure to implement the biometric finger scan reader, Sankhwalkar assured to implement the system from December 1. But now as we enter December, questions are being raised in the corridors of the civic body about whether the biometric finger scan reader will return to the Margao Municipal Council from Friday.
Take note, the biometric finger scan reader was implemented in the civic body over a decade ago after the MMC and the Goa Municipal Employees Association filed an agreement before the High Court in support of the biometric attendance on the condition that the system would not apply to field workers. The biometric attendance was discontinued in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic and it has not been put to use to date.
