Jharkhand government doctors boycott biometric attendance system

Ranchi: Jharkhand government doctors on Tuesday boycotted the biometric attendance system, terming it "not feasible" for emergency services.

The doctors claimed that they reached their places of work – hospitals and health centres – on time but skipped the biometric attendance as a mark of protest, instead, they used offline mode of attendance.

The decision to boycott the biometric attendance system was taken during a joint meeting of Jharkhand unit of Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Jharkhand Health Service Association (JHSA) on August 11 following a government order that says the system would be applicable to all government employees, an IMA official said.

JHSA state secretary Mrityunjay Thakur Singh said that the letter did not mention about emergency services.

He said, "It fixes duty hours for general employees from 10:30 am to 5 pm, while the same for secretariat employees is from 10:30 am to 6 pm. Can doctors work in the given time frame? if a doctor does extra hours in emergency, will he be paid for the service?"

"These have not been cleared in the letter." Jharkhand IMA secretary Pradip Kumar Singh said that the order cannot be implemented for people who are in emergency services such as police and medical, as it would "not be feasible".

"This could be feasible for those whose duty hours are fixed. Doctors' duty hours are not fixed. A doctor cannot follow the biometric rules if he is engaged in critical surgery in the operation theatre," he said.

Singh said that there are also technical flaws in the system. "If a doctor was deployed on VIP duty, how will he mark his attendance? Besides, it shows only 'in' and 'out'. If a doctor is on a night shift and he marks his attendance, it will show 'in'. When his duty gets over in the morning and the system will again show 'in'," he said.

Singh added that several areas of the state are still not covered with proper speed internet. "In such places, it will cause problems. Besides, how a doctor will mark his attendance, when he is on a special duty such as an election or Shravani mela in Deoghar," he said.

A Ranchi Sadar Hospital surgeon Dr Ajit Kumar said that emergency services should be excluded from the order, as it would cause trouble to the patient.

"I am a surgeon. I cannot leave a patient in the operation theatre midway through the operation if my duty is over. I have to perform it even if it takes two or three hours," he said.