Uttar Pradesh’s ‘Proxy Jugaad’: Government Employees Found Using Prosthetic Thumbs To Cheat Biometric Attendance

Government of Uttar Pradesh is trying to deal with the problem of prosthetic thumbs that are being supplied by rubber stamp manufacturers across the state. These help a person to log into the biometric attendance systems in government offices. The state government had finished installing biometric systems across all government offices last year. But sadly, loopholes are being exploited.

The prosthetic thumbs which cast the imprint of a specific individual is priced at Rs 300 in districts like Azamgarh, Varanasi etc. The users of these thumbs can vary from government to private employees, hackers and so on. Those who aren’t willing to attend the office can find this to be a proxy way to obtain attendance. These thumbs can be used to hack into laptops, phones and computers too, reported The New Indian Express.

But several district administration and police teams across various districts are tracking down the ones who run these rackets. District Magistrate of Varanasi, DM Surendra Singh has been quoted as saying, “Possibility of misuse of prosthetic thumbs can't be denied. However, it is not that easy. Every office has CCTV cameras installed, and also the arrival and departure time has to be recorded in a register signed by the employee himself.”