Chaos at Maharashtra legislature as biometric entry system debuts

Mumbai: There was major chaos over the entry of mediapersons and even officials into the state legislature for the monsoon session on Monday after the last-minute introduction of face-recognition software.

The new biometric entry rules were declared on the evening of the 19th for the legislature session, which began on the 22nd morning.Bizarrely, even though entry into the state secretariat, Mantralaya, is also based on biometric face-recognition software, the state legislature did not use the same material, even though there was a major overlap between the mediapersons and officials who come to the state legislature.The legislature staff asked mediapersons to submit their photos and details by email from Friday onwards, but most of those who tried to enter on Monday found there was no record of this. In many cases, more than half an hour was wasted in long queues waiting for the entry formalities to be completed.Indeed, many complained that if a biometric entry was to be introduced, at least a week’s time should have been allowed for the completion of entry formalities. Officials said the entry of people by using fake or duplicate passes had occurred in the past, leading to the introduction of biometric parameters.Faced with multiple complaints, state assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar said there were “technical problems” which would be sorted out.