Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The newly introduced Aadhaar-enabled E-Face Attendance System has exposed major discrepancies in the employee data of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC).
While the Urban Administration and Development (UAD) department claims that over 19,800 BMC employees have registered on the system, the corporation maintains that only around 16,000 employees are actually working , revealing a difference of nearly 3,000 suspicious entries.
According to UAD, 1,39,608 municipal employees across all 413 urban local bodies (ULBs) in Madhya Pradesh have registered under the new Aadhaar-enabled biometric system. Friday marked the final deadline for employees to enroll through the Aadhaar Face RD App, which records attendance using GPS-enabled facial recognition technology within a 30-metre radius of the mapped office location.
However, the BMC s enrollment figures raised eyebrows. The number of employees reportedly surged from 16,000 to nearly 19,854 within days of the registration process prompting questions over the authenticity of entries. Sources in the UAD suggest that this sudden spike points to possible duplication, ghost employees, or incorrect data entries.
A senior official from BMC s General Administration Department (GAD) stated that around 12,000 employees are currently marking attendance daily through the new digital system, while the remaining 4,000 employees are yet to fully adopt it due to smartphone unavailability or technical glitches.
Refuting allegations of fake employees, BMC s additional commissioner Varun Awasthi clarified that the inflated numbers may have resulted from duplicate registrations, retirements, or employee transfers. He assured that a comprehensive re-verification drive will soon be carried out to validate all registered entries.
UAD officials told Free Press that the new AEBAS (Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System) aims to enhance transparency and curb manipulation in employee attendance across all urban bodies of Madhya Pradesh.
Number of employees registered in E-Face Attendance System till October 31 in all 16 Municipal Corporations of state:
Municipal Corporation - Registered Employees
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Indore - 22,766
Bhopal - 19,854
Jabalpur - 7,582
Gwalior - 7,414
Ujjain - 5,559
Dewas - 2,171
Ratlam - 2,010
Chhindwara - 1,998
Satna - 1,800
Katni - 1,494
Burhanpur - 1,399
Khandwa - 1,372
Morena - 1,299
Rewa - 1,268
Sagar - 1,079
Singrauli - 785
