The introduction of digitisation has no doubt improved accountability in Government offices but digitisation has not been effective and efficient enough to switch over to smart online attendance system in Government offices. Since the working in the Government Offices starts with the attendance of the employees, the punctuality of the employees remains as good a matter of core concern for the Government in the present era of digitisation as it was in yesteryears when employees used to record their attendance on attendance registers . Though introduction of smart online attendance system in Government offices is good for regulating the punctuality of employees in Government offices but unfortunately allegations are galore that all is not going well with the working of the smart online attendance system introduced by the Government very recently. Though it is good for punctuality in Government offices that the smart online attendance system equipped with face recognition technology has been introduced by the Government recently as it records accurately the attendance of the employees and identifies the situation of employees entering and leaving the attendance room and also identifies the situations of being late and leaving early, but experiences have shown that frequent network breakdowns have virtually failed the smart online attendance system across Jammu & Kashmir. By all standards of understandabilities the onus of resolving the frequent network breakdowns in Government offices and elsewhere also lies partly on the cellular companies providing internet facilities to the people and partly on the Government.
“True it is that internet connectivity does not put to inconvenience only government employees but also trading and business outlets, private schools, private hospitals, nursing homes and other such public places but internet connectivity becoming a cause of their inability to record their attendance keeps Government employees in a state of chaos and confusion throughout the day. Administrative wisdom demands that instead of creating a situation of chaos and confusion among the employees in Government offices it would be better for the Government to suspend the smart online attendance system till the resolution of internet connectivity issues by the cellular companies providing internet facilities to people across Jammu & Kashmir”.
Since there is nothing new in the frequent network breakdowns experienced in the internet connectivity of almost all the cellular companies providing internet facilities to the people for last several years in different parts of the country including Jammu & Kashmir, Punishing the employees for failing to record their attendance through online attendance system won’t resolve the issue of internet connectivity in Government offices at all and as such it would be better for the Government to find out one time solution to poor internet connectivity in Government offices. True it is that internet connectivity does not put to inconvenience only government employees but also trading and business outlets, private schools, private hospitals, nursing homes and other such public places but internet connectivity becoming a cause of their inability to record their attendance keeps Government employees in a state of chaos and confusion throughout the day. Administrative wisdom demands that instead of creating a situation of chaos and confusion among the employees in Government offices it would be better for the Government to suspend the smart online attendance system till the resolution of internet connectivity issues by the cellular companies providing internet facilities to people across Jammu & Kashmir.
