Only 1 lakh of total 8 lakh govt. employees in Andhra Pradesh have downloaded facial recognition attendance app, suggests Google Play Store

A screenshot of the facial recognition attendance system (APFRS) application Even as the Andhra Pradesh government has made it mandatory for all government employees including

regular, contract, outsourced and those of village, ward secretariats, corporations and public sector undertakings to mark their attendance through facial recognition app, only

above 1 lakh of the targeted 8 lakh employees have downloaded the mobile application, according to Google Playstore. The new system came into force from January 16 across the

State. All the employees have been instructed to download the APFRS application developed by the ITE&C department, which is available at https://appstore.herb.apcfss.in/  The

APFRS is an Artificial Intelligence-based mobile application to capture clocking data using facial recognition technology. The Google Play Store suggests that more than 1 lakh

people have downloaded the application so far. However, some employees are opposing the new system. “The field-level staff across the State are facing problems as they cannot

download the app due to many reasons such as lack of proper mobile phones, access to network and nature of their work among others. A majority of the revenue staff work in the

field and they cannot come to the office to mark their attendance. They should be allowed to mark their attendance from the field,” said Revenue Services Association president

Bopparaju Venkateswarlu. He says personal security is another problem. “Many employees do not have smart phones. The government must provide cellphones to all the employees. The

government has implemented the new system without considering many pressing issues associated with it,” he said. Mr. Venkateswarlu said there are more than 4.3 lakh regular

employees, nearly 1.3 lakh employees are working at village and ward secretariats, about 2 lakh contract and outsourcing employees, apart from more than 60,000 employees working in

corporations and public sector undertakings. “Many employees of the Revenue Department are facing problems in downloading the app or accessing Internet facilities. The union has

suggested them to submit it in writing to their higher authorities,” said Mr. Venkateswarlu. Meanwhile, the government has exempted the village revenue officers and surveyors

engaged in the re-survey exercise in 2,000 villages from marking their attendance through the facial recognition app, he said, adding that such exemption must be extended to all

the field staff across the State.