By Ibankyntiew Mawrie
Shillong: After a long hibernation, the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) has re-implemented the Electronic Attendance Punching Machine in its head office at Lumjingshai, Shillong since September this year.
With the re-implementation of this system, the MeECL has gone way ahead of other government offices as far as entry and exit recording is concerned. This system which was revived since September this year managed to get the applause of many employees including many on-lookers.
It may be reminded that the Electronic Attendance Punching System in MeECL was started in 1995 by the then Chairman, Mr VS Jafa, with the aim of ensuring discipline in office attendance. Every employee, on entering the office gates will get his/her card punched in the electronic card punching machine whereby the time of attendance is recorded.
Similarly at the end of the month, the information of each employee is collected and analyzed. The employee also gets his/her card punched on leaving office in the evening, everyday.
Following suit, the Main Secretariat has arranged for the Entry-Exit Control System which is scheduled to be launched next year. According to the Principal Secretary, Secretariat Administration Department (SAD) P Naik, the system will ensure security within the secretariat premises while maintaining discipline among the employees. He informed that each employee of the Secretariat will be given a smart card which is a proof of identity.
Explaining the benefits of this Electronic Attendance Punching System, Public Relations Officer, MeECL EB Kharmujai told The Shillong Times that the Corporation has definitely benefited much from the system as it has inculcated punctuality and discipline among employees.
“The employees are also happy with the system. They are putting in extra effort to come in time and leave office on time. The work culture of the organization has also improved considerably thereby increasing work productivity through better access and services to the public”, Kharmujai stated.
Meanwhile, commenting on this system, an employee of MeECL said “Re-introducing this system will improve the attendance of every employee while maintaining discipline during the working hours.”
However, another employee complained about the negative aspect of this system saying “The machine is designed in such a way that the card can be punched by anyone. There is no finger print proof to identify the puncher, so I think a person could easily send another person in his/her stead to punch the card without getting noticed.”
Reacting to this, the MeECL PRO said the MeECL is looking at further improvement with the installation of the Biometric Attendance Monitoring System (BAMS) in the near future.