Gangtok (Sikkim) [India], September 23 (ANI): The Sikkim Government is set to introduce the Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) across all government departments, with attendance monitoring through the system scheduled to commence from October 1, 2026, at the State Headquarters and District Headquarters.
According to a circular issued by the Home Department, the AEBAS has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and linked with the Aadhaar/UID of users. The system will allow government employees to register their attendance through smartphones from designated locations within the vicinity of their workplace.
The circular makes it mandatory for all regular and temporary government employees to register themselves on AEBAS and record their attendance through the system.
Attendance and leave records captured through AEBAS will be linked with the government’s PRANALI system. Failure to record attendance through AEBAS will be treated as Extraordinary Leave, with the corresponding salary deduction to be made automatically through PRANALI from the salary accruing in the subsequent month.
At the end of every month, AEBAS will generate an attendance report for each employee. Nodal officers appointed by the respective departments will verify leave and absences to determine whether they are authorised and genuine.
After accounting for permissible leave and official duty, any remaining absence will be treated as the employee’s net absence. Following the cut-off date of the 7th of the subsequent month, the PRANALI system will retrieve the net absence figures through NIC’s Net Absence Consolidation APIs.
Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) will then be able to generate and digitally sign office orders for Extraordinary Leave or Leave Without Pay for employees whose net absence for the preceding month is non-zero.
The orders generated through PRANALI will be forwarded to the concerned personnel sections for updating the employee’s leave account and service book. In the case of Group A and B officers, the orders will be forwarded to the Department of Personnel.
The circular also refers to Rule 20(2) of the Sikkim Government Service (Leave) Rules, 1982, under which the competent authority may convert a period of absence without leave into Extraordinary Leave. No additional procedure will be required for declaring unauthorised absence recorded through AEBAS as Extraordinary Leave.
For temporary employees, failure to record attendance through AEBAS will be treated as Leave Without Pay, with the prescribed procedure followed for deduction of salary or wages.
All Secretaries and Heads of Departments have been directed to appoint nodal officers not below the rank of Additional Secretary or equivalent. The officers will receive hands-on training from NIC for operating AEBAS.
The attendance monitoring system will subsequently be rolled out across the entire State. (ANI)
Sikkim government to introduce Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance from Oct 1
