MP News: Urban body scams exposed, hourly attendance data of every employee to be sent to municipal commissioner, orders issued.
MP News: The issue of thousands of ghost employees in local bodies has gained traction. In view of this, the Urban Administration and Development Department has directed all 413 local bodies in the state to submit detailed data on staff strength and salary expenditure within three days after the implementation of the new face attendance system.
However, irregularities have already come to light. More than 3000 fake or suspicious employees were found in the Bhopal Municipal Corporation alone. According to UAD records, BMC has 19,854 registered employees, while the corporation claims to have approximately 16,000 genuine employees.
The department has issued a circular asking the commissioners of municipal corporations and chief municipal officers of town councils to submit a report on how many employees have been removed from the rolls after the Aadhaar-based biometric attendance system (AEBAS) registration and how much savings are being made in monthly salary expenditure. This data must be submitted in the prescribed format within three days.
According to UAD, about 1.39 lakh municipal employees across MP have registered under the new Aadhaar-based face recognition attendance system. This system uses GPS-enabled technology, which verifies attendance within a 30-meter radius of the office location. The last date for registration expired on October 31.
In the third phase of the initiative, action is expected against employees who are habitually late or fail to record their attendance. This digital tracking system is considered a major step towards improving efficiency and accountability in the corporation's functioning.
- Varun Awasthi, Additional Commissioner, Corporation