Deccan Chronicle      01.06.2010

May 31: The Chennai metropolitan water supply and sewerage board (CMWSSB) has introduced the biometric system of recording staff attendance, on a trial basis, at its headquarters in Chintadripet.

A fingerprint scanner had been kept at the reception on the ground floor of the office that accommodates several hundred staff. CMWSSB has joined the short and yet elite list of very few government agencies having biometric attendance system. CMWSSB has a workforce of over 3,000 employees, including field staff like assistant executive engineers and their subordinates.

Most of them are always on the move, monitoring and attending repairs in the underground drainage system and water distribution. This makes monitoring of staff presence difficult. In fact, a surveillance camera was installed near the CMWSSB HQ office reception to monitor staff movement. The footage can be viewed directly from the managing director’s office, sources revealed.

CMWSSB MD Shiv Das Meena - sources say the new system is his brainchild - confirmed that the biometric system had been introduced on a trial basis and, based on the feedback, its future would be decided.