Haryana to provide smartwatches to officials to track attendance

The GPS-enabled wristwatch costs around Rs 7,000- Rs 8,000 and the government agency has to pay for it.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced that state government officials would get smartwatches to track their movement during office hours. It will also serve as a tool to mark attendance, he said.

This announcement was made by the chief minister during the 'Vikas' rally in Sarmathla village of Sohna. The GPS-enabled wristwatch costs around Rs 7,000- Rs 8,000 and the government has to pay for it.

Khattar said "All government officials in the state will wear smartwatches that will track their movement during office hours as well as serve as a tool to mark attendance".

Previous biometric attendance marking system at the government offices would remain discontinued due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While GPS-enabled smartwatches will soon be introduced to track attendance, Khattar added.

To prevent the transmission of the virus, biometric machines have been suspended. The Chief Minister pointed out how the government officials used to go to the office once a week and tick their attendance for all working days. And therefore, the biometric attendance system was launched as this requires officials concerned to physically touch it.

Idea of introducing smartwatches as an attendance tool would mark a progression from the previous roster systems and will prevent manipulation of the attendance, CM added.

Khattar added "We will be introducing smartwatches that will only track the official it is assigned to. The watch would stop working if somebody else wears it. This way, movement of all government officials in Haryana will be tracked. The smartwatch will send the real-time location of the employees to the central control room and their attendance will then be marked.".

Panchkula Municipal Corporation and the Chandigarh administration have adopted the smartwatch attendance system.

Under the Smart City Project, in 2018, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation became the first government body to introduce GPS-enabled smartwatches.