NEW DELHI: One year into the Modi regime whose inauguration saw improved punctuality in government offices, things seems to have slipped back forcing the government to warn that truancy would be punished.

In a communication to all the central government ministries on Monday, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) emphasized : “Habitual late attendance is viewed as conduct unbecoming of a government servant and disciplinary action may be taken against such a government servant. It is also added that punctuality in attendance is to be observed by government servants at all levels”.

Modi government’s advent saw a huge jump in punctuality with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself along with his ministers leading by example and the introduction of bio-metric attendance system facilitating tracking of those playing truant.

Given that background, the stern communication on Monday led many to wonder whether old habits resurfaced after a year of enforced punctuality which caused resentment among employees and is believed to have led to large sections of employees to vote against the BJP in Delhi polls in February. People also speculated whether the awe that new regime inspired had begun to wear thin, encouraging people to switch back to old ways.

“Service rules stipulate that every government servant shall at all times maintain devotion to duty,” DoPT emphasized, stressing that this was not the first time employees had been told to respect timings. “Responsibility for ensuring punctuality in respect of their employees rests within ministries, departments or offices,” the missive said.

There are about 48 lakh central government employees working across the country.

It also said that the Aadhaar-enabled bio-metric attendance system (AEBAS), meant to replace the manual system of marking of attendance, were required to be installed in central government offices, including attached and subordinate offices, where they are not in use.

“There have been instances of tardiness by employees in coming to offices. The ministries have been asked to ensure that all employees mark their attendance through the biometric system and take action against habitual offenders,” a senior DoPT official said.

A website---www.attendance.gov.in--has also been made functional to give details of registered employees and those present in the offices on daily basis.

There were 1,29,895 registered employees of which 62,761 were present on Monday, according to the website.

However, DoPT said that the biometric attendance system is only an enabling platform and there is no change in the instructions relating to office hours, late attendance etc, the order said.

As per existing instructions, half-a-day’s casual leave should be debited for each day of late attendance, but late attendance up to half an hour, on not more than two occasions in a month, and for justifiable reasons may be condoned by the competent authority.