Aadhaar-based attendance for government offices by March 31

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 7

In a major decision, the State Administrative Council today announced that all government offices in Jammu and Kashmir would have an Aadhaar-based biometric attendance system by March 31.

The council met under the chairmanship of Governor NN Vohra for the first time after its constitution on February 4 at Raj Bhawan here.

It decided that all administrative secretaries would personally monitor the implementation of all state plan and centrally sponsored schemes with special focus on flagship schemes of the Government of India.

Keeping in view the ensuing closure of the financial year, the secretaries would ensure timely utilisation of funds available under various schemes.

They would ensure that utilisation certificates were timely forwarded to central authorities concerned. This would facilitate timely release of central scheme funding in the next financial year, the council decided.

It decided that the secretaries and department heads would undertake physical and financial monitoring of various programmes and the work being implemented on the ground.

The meeting was attended by Parvez Dewan and Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, Advisers to the Governor; BR Sharma, Chief Secretary; and BB Vyas, Financial Commissioner, Planning and Development Department.

The Governor stressed the need to ensure punctuality and discipline in attending office by government functionaries and proper functioning of institutions, including schools, colleges, hospitals and ration shops.

“High priority must be given to ensuring that offices and institutions which are concerned with the delivery of public services run honestly and efficiently,” he said.

The council decided that the two Advisers and the Chief Secretary would identify all priority issues pending for decision and bring those before future meetings of the council.

The Governor stressed on the Advisers, Chief Secretary and Financial Commissioner to advise all administrative secretaries to pay attention to various issues requiring policy decisions and ensure timely processing for approval.

“Special emphasis will be laid on timely finalisation of SRO-43 cases and the basis of the policy underlying this order would be reviewed to identify if any other or supplementary approaches can be followed to meet the objective of compassionate support in all such cases,” the Governor said.

The SRO-43 is a scheme to provide immediate succour to the next of the kin of the deceased and mitigate hardships caused to the family due to loss of breadwinner.

The council said all necessary measures would be timely finalised for the conduct of elections to local bodies and panchayats.

It was decided that systematic attention would be given to ensure proper maintenance of official record and time-bound listing and digitalisation.

The Governor laid emphasis on timely dissemination and issuance of early warning being made by the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment and the Indian Meteorological Department to people with regard to any extreme weather events.

The Governor stated that Divisional Commissioners, Inspector Generals of Police, Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police should remain alert and prepared to meet any emerging disaster situation.