Vijayawada: The state government has taken a serious view of lax attendance by Secretariat employees.

Attendance is dropping to 35 per cent on Mondays and Fridays. Since it’s a five-day week, the government finds this unacceptable. The Chief Minister Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu has now directed officials to implement the biometric system to track employee attendance.

A circular was sent to this effect. Many employees are leaving on Thursday night or Friday morning after signing the register. Work efficiency is affected in the process as employees are leaving for Hyderabad since they haven’t shifted their families yet, even after five months of the Secretariat shifting.

On Mondays, attendance is particularly sparse, with some employees reaching the work place by evening 4 pm or 5 pm! Others make a phone call or sign the register the next day.

Even after the circular mentioning the presence of Ministers as a must for ‘grievance redressal day’ every Friday, very few ministers can be seen in the Secretariat on that day.

Taking advantage of this, employees are turning into no-shows as the concerned ministers aren’t attending. The result: files are piling up.

The government had issued three successive circulars to curb this trend, to no effect and finally decided on the biometric attendance system, requiring employees to attend office by 10 am sharp.

As per the guidelines issued last November, the government has decided to use the Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance system in its offices. “All employees are, therefore, required to register themselves in the system and mark their attendance. Instructions already exist for dealing with cases of late attendance and unauthorised absence, which may be followed,” said the order.