The Biometric scanner introduced by the Margao Municipality a couple of months back met with stiff resistance from the employees of the council resulting in a stand-off between the office of the chief officer and the chairperson on one side versus the civic employees' union on the other.
The issue was solved with a meek surrender by the council in an apparent intervention by the office of the Chief Minister , to appease the erring employees and reconciling to their whims and fancies and thereby agreeing to their demands to continue the attendance on the muster roll which has always been known to be the prime source of all mischief with regard to attendance.
It was on Friday, the 26th February 2009, that the stand of the Chief officer and the chairperson on the use of the biometric scanner was completely vindicated during a surprise inspection of the attendance register. A group of employees were caught when the attendance register revealed that they had signed the muster roll for the post-lunch session during lunch break.
The incident came to light in the afternoon when the Chairperson, Savio Coutinho had a random check of the muster rolls, which led to the revelation that five employees had signed the rolls around 1.15 pm. This is being done despite the attendance register being kept in the Chief Officer's cabin which has failed to serve the desired purpose. This clearly showed that the muster roll was being manipulated to favour absent employees by vested interests within the council.
The issue being a serious lapse, the chairperson has now asked the Chief Officer to initiate action against the erring employees and has also reportedly instructed the official supervising the attendance register to make the relevant remarks on the muster roll so that irregularities are brought to the notice of the chief Officer.
It has been painfully observed by citizens of Margao that due to the inefficiency of the civic staff, they are compelled to make innumerable rounds to the Municipality for silly reasons and the large scale absenteeism of the staff to pursue their own interest during working hours has only added to the miseries of the common man in Goa.
The reason for the novel idea of introducing the biometric scanner and the reservations by the civic employees union are both now very clear. Law has been forcefully subverted by meaningless opposition against the bids to enforce norms of discipline which is a prerogative of the employer. This is the saddest thing happening in full public view of Goans who are at the mercy of this staff on a daily basis. How did the government of Goa succumb to such arm twisting, is a mystery?
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