Salary of BMC-run hospitals' staffers cut due to faulty biometric machines

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The year's most colourful day turned a dark shade of grey for hundreds of staffers of BMC-run hospitals in the city, who found out on Friday that only a few hundred rupees had been credited into their salary accounts. The dean of KEM Hospital and several doctors, too, had not been spared.

It turns out that because of faulty and inadequate number of biometric machines, staffers have been unable to log in their attendance, with the result that they have been presumed absent and their salaries docked accordingly. Officials have been busy passing the buck on the gaffe, with the BMC now promising to correct the salary deposits by Monday, March 5.

In 2016, the state had issued a circular making biometric attendance mandatory for all government and civic-run hospitals. However, even two years later, the corporation has failed to install an adequate number of biometric machines at these hospitals. "I mainly work on the nightshift, but the biometric system doesn't register attendance post 6pm, while I come in at 8pm. How am I responsible for this? This month, I received only Rs 2,000 in my salary account," said a nurse from Nair hospital.

Staffers said none of them received any warning or intimation about the salary cut. The 2016 circular states that the officer-in-charge is responsible for ensuring that all employees are biometrically registered. "It is the duty of the officers-in-charge such as the dean, director and superintendents of the hospitals to ensure adequate number of machines," said Sunil Chitnis, head of the Shiv Sena-affiliated Municipal Karmachari Kamgar Sena.

Confirming that the salaries would be rectified by Monday, Dr Avinash Supe, dean of KEM hospital, said, "The salaries will be credited by March 5. The daily biometric rota will also be updated so there is no need for panic." Trishila Kamble, general secretary of BMC Nursing and Paramedical Staff Union, said, "Sometimes, the machines don't work due to network issues and many of them require software upgradation but the administration has done nothing about it for two years."

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