Centre suspends biometric attendance for government Staff

New Delhi: The biometric attendance at all government offices has been suspended in view of rising Covid cases, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said.

However, all the employees are required to mark their attendance in attendance registers to be maintained manually, an order issued by the Union Personnel Ministry said.

"Keeping in view the rise in #COVID cases in the last few days, the Biometric attendance for govt officials and employees is being suspended with immediate effect, till further orders.

Under leadership of PM Sh @NarendraModi, this decision has been taken in the interest of safety and health of the govt employees," Singh wrote on Twitter.

The decision has been taken in the interest of safety and health of the govt employees, he said.

An official release by the ministry said, "As a precautionary measure, it has been decided to suspend the marking of biometric attendance in Aadhaar-based biometric attendance system in all ministries/departments of the government of India, including its attached/subordinate offices, with immediate effect till January 31, 2022."

All the heads of departments shall also continue to ensure that all employees always wear masks and follow Covid-appropriate behaviour strictly, the order said.

India on Monday reported a sharp surge in its daily coronavirus cases. A total of 33,750 fresh Covid-19 cases were reported in the last 24 hours. On the other hand, 175 fresh Omicron cases were reported in a day, taking the total caseload to 1,700. India's cumulative Covid-19 caseload has jumped to 34,922,882 so far, according to the data by the Union ministry of health.

The country reported 10,846 recoveries and 123 deaths in the last 24 hours. The active cases have increased to 22781 in just one day. The current active caseload stands at 1,45,582 which is 0.42% of the total cases. The recoveries from coronavirus have increased to 3.42 crore while the overall fatalities climbed to 4,81,893.