Biometric attendance for 100 JNTU colleges

Hyderabad, January 23 : JNTUH has announced again about the biometric attendance of students and lecturers. About 100 colleges under the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTU-H) have not implemented biometric attendance system (BAS) more than 10 days after the deadline got over.

JNTU officials said these colleges are not only reluctant to implement the new system, but they did not even bother to buy the devices .

College managements on the other hand cited poor budgetary allocation as the primary reason for not implementing , while thrashing the new system as an unnecessary restriction on teaching faculty.


"Nowhere in the world have we had such stupid restrictions for teachers. This is an intellectual job and professors work for 24 hours. Asking them to punch in and punch out every day a particular time doesn't make any sense. Anyway, as per the government order, this new system was supposed to be implemented all educational institutions from KG-PG, then why only private professional colleges are targeted," said K Ramadass, president, Telangana Pharmacy Colleges.

He said that JNTU can't deny affiliation to any private college citing BAS as a reason as it doesn't stand valid, both on UGC terms and legal basis.

"We tried to explain to JNTU authorities that implementing BAS is not necessary for affiliation, but they are hell bent to get all the colleges under them to install this system. In the middle of the semester, it is not possible to make such changes and also we did not receive the reimbursement amount till now, so most of the colleges are facing financial problems" ,said Ramadass, who also acts as a convener for Telangana Private Colleges Joint Action Committee.

The members of JAC are optimistic that implementing of BAS will be postponed till June and revealed that although many colleges have purchased the devices, more than 90 percent of them have not. Meanwhile, JNTU Registrar N. Yadaiah made it clear that colleges will not be given affiliation if the system is not in place .