Face-scan attendance for panchayat staff likely from Aug 1

Panaji: The directorate of panchayats is in the process of completing the integration of Niyamith Goa, a facial recognition-based attendance app, across all its offices from Aug 1 to tighten attendance monitoring.The system developed by Goa Electronics Limited (GEL) will replace the current biometric fingerprint system at village panchayats, block development offices, and the directorate headquarters.At present, all employees under the directorate are undergoing facial data collection to enable the system. Once in place, the app will use AI to capture an employee’s face, record their location and time of arrival or departure, and instantly update a centralised dashboard.“This dashboard can be directly accessed by the minister for panchayats to monitor attendance in real time,” said panchayat director, Siddhi Harlankar.The decision to implement a foolproof system comes after MLA Premendra Shet highlighted the issue of irregular attendance among panchayat staff through a legislative assembly question.Following this, the directorate decided to integrate advanced technology to plug loopholes in the attendance process and improve accountability.

Officials believe the new system will prevent proxy punching and buddy punching — common drawbacks of older biometric systems — and ensure that employees are physically present at their designated work locations.“We are the pilot department for this initiative, which will be expanded to other govt departments in Goa,” Harlankar said.TOI had reported on April 21 that state govt has floated a request for proposal to develop and implement the AI-based attendance system. GEL will manage the complete project and ensure its initiation, planning, execution, and monitoring.