Sadly it has become a day to day affair that whenever a senior officer visits different offices to check the efficacy, the first thing which comes to fore is absenteeism as it has become a fashion in J&K that employees take undue advantage and remain absent without going through the proper procedure of applying for a leave. This for sure is affecting the performance of the government departments and therefore more has to be done to stop this practice and those found involved in absenteeism should be taught a befitting lesson so that such things do not spoil sport.
In this context, the District Magistrate Jammu conducted a surprise inspection of government institutions across the tehsils in the western part of the district and took stock of their functioning and delivery of public services.
The District Magistrate visited Sub Division Hospital Akhnoor and reviewed the medicare facilities, infrastructure, and staff attendance. He found some staff members absent from the duty and sought their explanation. He also directed the concerned officer to take disciplinary action against any unprofessional conduct or lack of punctuality.
There is no doubt in the fact that the purpose of these surprise visits was to ensure accountability and responsiveness among government officials and to improve the quality of governance and administration but unfortunately things remain the same despite action taken against many habitual absentees thus making it imperative to come up with a new mechanism to check this menace as stop the same once and for all.
It is however strange that despite the biometric attendance provision, the employees dare to remain absent without taking appropriate permission. There is dire need that the government should come up with more stringent rules to check this unauthorized absence of employees as it is utmost necessary that the people on duty should attend their offices to provide services to people.
It is agonizing that people employed at the healthcare services centres do take liberties and remain off duty when they are supposed to be present in dispensaries or hospitals because this could be dangerous as well because these places need staff to save lives of people. The government should come up with a mechanism to check this as soon as possible or else more departments will get affected by this wrong practice of absenteeism.
