Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: Empty counters at village panchayats with staff playing truant could soon be a thing of the past with the Directorate of Panchayats set to instil a degree of punctuality and discipline by introducing biometrics to track attendance of employees in all the 191 village bodies across Goa.
Some of these village panchayats have already installed the gadgets of their own volition but there was no centralised monitoring of the attendance, which the department now hopes to put in place with this decision which involves linking the system to a central server.
The proposal was discussed and finalised at a meeting earlier this week chaired by Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho where officials were instructed to gather information as to how many panchayats have the biometric machines in working condition and estimate the total requirement.
New equipment will be purchased, and the National Informatics Centre (NIC) of the central government as well as Goa Electronics Limited (GEL) of the State government will be enlisted to help.
In addition to offering technical guidance, GEL and NIC will be in charge of acquiring the biometric devices.
With the help of biometrics, Goa’s 191 panchayats—which employ roughly 700 people total—including secretaries and DoP officials, are trying to tighten up on staff attendance and punctuality.
In total, the department, which includes every BDO office, employs 300 more people. Regarding the panchayats, the majority have a clerk and a secretary, a few have two clerks, and a few have up to four.
