Parliament Secretariat Collects Biometric Data for Attendance System

Kathmandu. The Federal Parliament Secretariat has started collecting biometric details to make the attendance system of the members of the House of Representatives and the National Assembly technologically friendly.

With the objective of recording the attendance of the parliamentarians in the meetings of the parliament and its various thematic committees through electronic means, this campaign was started from Thursday. Now, in a few days, parliamentarians will have to mark their attendance digitally instead of manual (paper) attendance in parliamentary meetings.

According to the Secretariat, the process of collecting details of parliamentarians of some thematic committees has been completed in the first phase. So far, the biometric details of the parliamentarians of the International Relations and Tourism Committee, Development, Economic Affairs and Public Policy Committee, Finance Committee, and Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee have been collected. Similarly, the collection of details of the members of the Industry, Commerce and Labour and Consumer Interest Committee and the Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee is also ongoing, the Secretariat has stated.

Considering the busy schedule of the parliamentarians and the committee meetings, the Secretariat has also published a separate work schedule for the collection of details. On Friday, the biometric details of the parliamentarians of the Agriculture, Cooperatives and Natural Resources Committee, Federalism Strengthening and National Concerns Committee, Infrastructure Development Committee, Public Policy and Good Governance Committee, Women and Social Affairs Committee, and State Affairs and Good Governance Committee will be collected.

The remaining work of data collection will continue until next week. The Secretariat has mentioned that this process will reach the final stage after collecting the details of the parliamentarians of the Public Accounts Committee and the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee on Monday, Baishakh 28.

It is believed that once the electronic attendance system comes into operation, it will be easier to keep records of the attendance of the parliamentarians, transparency will increase, and accuracy will be achieved in data management. Earlier, parliamentarians used to mark their attendance by signing a register placed outside the meeting room.