Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The newly implemented centralised online face attendance system in Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) has run into major technical hurdles, leaving thousands of employees unable to record attendance for several days.
The disruption has occurred mainly because the corporation is yet to complete mapping of its 85 ward offices and several other departments.
According to sources, out of over 18,000 employees, including regular, contractual and daily-wage workers, only around 3,000 have been able to mark attendance daily on the MP Attendance Portal over the past three days. The remaining employees have been unable to do so due to mapping delays.
Under the new system, attendance is recorded through Aadhaar Face RD and Aadhaar Base apps, which are GPS-enabled and can function only within a 30-metre radius of the mapped office location.
Earlier, attendance in BMC was marked through thumb impression, Sarthak app and physical registers. The new system was intended to promote transparency and curb fake attendance, but has instead caused widespread confusion and daily disruptions.
Officials said the Urban Administration Department has been informed about the mapping issue. Besides 85 ward offices, several other branches have not been mapped yet. So far, only 21 zone offices have been successfully integrated into the system.
500 plaint calls daily
BMC technical officials said that since the rollout, they have been receiving about 500 calls every day from employees seeking help. The corporation expects that once mapping is completed and face attendance devices are installed, the system will stabilise within the next few weeks.
Face attendance devices
To ease the situation, BMC is preparing to install around 150 face attendance machines at its headquarters, zone offices and ward offices. These machines will serve as an alternative for employees whose mobile phones cannot support the Aadhaar Face RD app.
Issues to be resolved soon
Additional Commissioner Varun Awasthi acknowledged the ongoing problems, saying, The technical difficulties employees are facing in marking attendance will be resolved soon.
All offices will be mapped shortly. He said that 90 percent of employees have been registered in the new system and about 95 percent use Android phones.
[Story by Staff Reporter]
