Post News Network

attendance system
Bhubaneswar, Jan 8: The biometric attendance system launched by the Capital Hospital to keep a check on the attendance of doctors and other staff, has come a cropper.
The hospital had in 2011 installed the biometric attendance system. However, the lack of maintenance has led to five of the seven machines lying defunct, forcing the hospital to revert to the old practice of signing on registers to mark the attendance of staff.
The machines were installed for the first time in a hospital in Orissa here with funds from the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), which appointed a private agency for the installation and maintenance of the machines, according to sources.
“About five machines have been defunct and the agency is asking for a huge amount of money for repairing them. We have written to the NRHM, but have been told that the hospital has to bear the maintenance charges. As such, the machines are still lying defunct,” said a senior hospital official on the request of anonymity.
However, Capital Hospital superintendent Binod Mishra differed. “We have tried to contact the agency concerned to repair the machines but after repeated attempts we have failed to establish contact as they are not responding to our calls or messages,” said Mishra.