Amid coronavirus scare, National Green Tribunal (NGT) stops biometric attendance

In the wake of the COVID-19 scare, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has stopped biometric marking of attendance at its Delhi office. According to a statement by NGT's Registrar General Ashu Garg, the biometric marking of attendance has been stopped with immediate effect till March 31. 

 "To prevent coronavirus, in terms of the advisory of Delhi Government issued to various departments/offices, marking of attendance on biometric machines and use of the same is being stopped in National Green Tribunal (Principal Bench), New Delhi with immediate effect till 31.03.2020," NGT's Registrar General Ashu Garg said.

Employees to mark attendance manually 

The directive further stated that attendance during this period is to be marked manually with arrival and departure time under the supervision of the concerned supervising officer. The notification also said that this was done with the approval of the competent authority. The Centre had on March 6 requested all ministries and departments to discontinue their biometric attendance system in the wake of the spread of coronavirus in the national capital.

"In view of Coronavirus, all Ministries/Departments are requested to exempt their employees to mark biometric attendance in Aadhaar-based Biometric Attendance System till 31 March 2020. However, all employees are required to mark their attendance in a register," Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions stated.

India now has 43 COVID-19 patients

India's Coronavirus tally rose to 43 as four more positive cases were reported on Monday. A report from Kerala said a three-year-old child who flew down to Cochin International Airport on March 7 from Italy tested positive for the virus. The child's parents are also being tested now. In the meantime, Jammu and Kashmir reported its first coronavirus case as a 63-year-old woman, who came back from Iran recently, was tested positive.

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Kerala was the first state in India to have reported coronavirus cases when three patients, who returned from Wuhan in January, were found infected. The three patients have since then been discharged after recovery. On Sunday, another five cases were reported from the southern state. All of them had travelled to Italy recently. The Kerala government has now issued a warning against those hiding travel history to affected nations.

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The virus now known as COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, China, late last year and quickly spread across the globe. So far, over 1 lakh cases of coronavirus have been reported across 90 countries with about 3,400 deaths.

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(With agency inputs)