Govt employees to get biometric cards for entry to CCS-3 building

THe ministry of place affairs(MHA) has asked all telephone exchange regime employees who feature shifted to the young CCS-3 building to get their biometric details for smart cards as part of the new security protocol for entry inside the building, according to an internal communication issued by the ministry. This will apply to all employees who enter the building, including those on contractual basis.The new CCS-3 building, which houses at least 9 offices of different ministries and departments, is under the MHA’s security cover. Officials aware of the development said that the old identity cards(without biometric) under the new security system will be invalid and that a new smart card along with biometric details will be issued to the employees soon.Dev Gupta, president of the Central Secretariat Service Forum, said, “This is a new smart card system and is proposed to be in place. The Aadhar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) is installed inside the office buildings. This new smart card, which will replace the identity card will be used to authenticate Government officers entry inside the buildings, thereby is better for security purposes.”The biometric installed smart cards will be used to enter the tightly secured government offices, officials said. While biometric details of the central government employees working in the ministries were available with each department, it was used only for marking attendance and was placed inside their respective offices. The details were not used for authenticating the visitor’s identity at the entry gates. The employees have now been asked to apply for smart cards, give biometrics, which will be synchronised to the smart card for entry.Gupta said that the seating space provided to CSS officers of various levels in the Central Vista are not in accordance with the prescribed norms of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India. He urged the Government to take due cognisance of this issue and address it appropriately.An internal communication sent by the MHA to the ministries said, “..It is to inform that this ministry will issue smart cards to all employees whose Ministry/Department housed in the CCS-3 building to facilitate access to the CCS-3 building, which is under the security cover of the MHA….All officials/non officials/contractual employees, who are having identity cards under the old system are requested to switch to smart cards at the earliest.”The employees have been asked to fill an online form, submit photographs and report to an office of the MHA for biometric authentication.The 9 ministries/departments that have already been allotted space within the CCS- 3 building include Ministry of Home Affairs(North Block), Ministry of External Affairs(South BLock and Shastri Bhawan), Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor(Vigyan Bhawan Annexe), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas(Shastri Bhawan), Department of Personnel and Training(North Block), Ministry of Small& Medium Enterprises(Udyog Bhawan), Office of the Development Commissioner, MSME(Nirman Bhawan), Ministry of Rural Development(Krishi Bhawan) and Department of Land Resources(Nirman Bhawan).