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Empty chairs at ministries irk Naidu

Last Updated 28 July 2014, 19:12 IST

Union minister Venkaiah Naidu conducted a surprise check of his Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation ministries located at Nirman Bhavan on Monday, and found many officials and employees absent.

Naidu instructed senior officials to immediately install a biometric attendance system in the ministries which report to him. 

This was the second surprise check at the said ministries by Naidu, who has been focusing on the need for punctuality.

On finding many empty chairs, the urban development minister ordered that the names of missing officials and employees be noted and an explanation be called from them for absenteeism. He was accompanied by Secretary (Urban Development) Shankar Aggarwal.

Naidu wanted joint secretaries of the ministries to visit their respective offices every day for a week to monitor the attendance and find the “chronic offenders”. 

Tough measures

Attendance registers would be removed 15 minutes after “the due time of reporting” and latecomers would be marked absent while also facing a day’s salary cut.  

A few weeks ago, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar asked nearly 40 people in his department to apply for casual leave because they were not at work on time on a Monday morning.

Sources close to Naidu said the effort was to enforce Prime Minister Narendra Modi's directive to prioritise efficiency by reducing delays and cutting red tape. 

Bureaucrats have been ordered to focus on swift disposal of files. 

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(Published 28 July 2014, 19:12 IST)

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