No internet! Biometric attendance defunct in Kashmir

Bio-metric attendance system in government and private offices across Kashmir has been severely affected for the last 57-days due to snapping of internet services in the Valley.

An IT expert said the suspension of the internet services have restricted the usage of biometric attendance system which is basically used for an online system of marking the attendance along with accurate login and log out time on the employee database of the organization.

But due to the prevailing internet clampdown, he said, the organization have to rely on the manual system of attendance which is made on a piece of paper or registry. Since last few years, biometric attendance system was gaining momentum in Kashmir as the government was keen to improve attendance in offices.

Not only government offices but major call service centers based in Kashmir too have been badly hit due to the non-functioning of biometric attendance systems. The valley based call service center officials are facing a tough challenge from their respective managements on the authenticity of their day-to-day attendance system.

Faheem Malik, a call center representative said he had been marking his attendance on a register which is manually operated since August 5. “But I am not sure whether our management will accept this or not as most of the times they doubt about the authenticity of this system. This is the traditional and an outdated method to keep track of staff attendance,” he said

Malik said the prevailing uncertainty has doubled their work and the suspension of internet services has hampered most of their job responsibilities.

Another employee Sandeep Saxena said that when last time he spoke to his senior officials and narrated them the ordeal on biometric system failure “they were not convinced by our alternative way of marking the attendance.”

“I recently interacted with a senior official from our company on the telephone. He questioned me about the staff presence, attendance procedure, time logbook, etc. but by the end of our conversation he was not satisfied with our way of work,” he added.