India, Aug. 22 -- The Delhi government will install CCTV cameras to monitor biometric attendance devices in district offices, institutions and the headquarters of the Social Welfare Department after inspections indicated suspected deliberate tampering with several machines. The move comes after repeated complaints of malfunctioning biometric devices. During inspections, service engineers found water inside multiple attendance machines despite there being no nearby water source or plumbing, raising suspicion that some devices had been intentionally damaged. Officials said similar findings were reported from several offices.
The department has directed that CCTV surveillance be introduced to prevent further damage and ensure proper functioning of the attendance system. Officials also acknowledged that employees in departments such as Social Welfare, Women and Child Development and Labour often perform field duties, making it difficult to mark attendance through office-based biometric devices. To address this, the department is exploring a mobile-based Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance system integrated with facial recognition and real-time geolocation for field staff. The IT Branch has been asked to examine its technical feasibility. Biometric attendance was made mandatory across Delhi government departments earlier this year, with officials required to record attendance at the beginning and end of the workday.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.