From January, students and staff members of Andhra University will have to become cautious when it comes to attendance. Going by the State government’s order, the entire campus will come under biometric system of attendance.
Right now the campus has about 100 Android-based machines placed at different departments on a pilot basis. All these machines will be replaced by Linux-based machines.
“We have floated a tender for the supply of 350 Linux-based machines and the tender has been finalised. The machines will be supplied by November-end and by December they will be installed at all departments and from January we wish to make them operational, said Vice-Chancellor Prof. G. Nageswara Rao. The machines will be installed at a cost of ₹50 lakh. Once installed, the entry and the exit of students and staff members will be digitally recorded and they cannot be tampered. This will increase the transparency and it can be monitored real time from the V-C’s and Registrar’s chamber, as it will be linked to the main server.
CCTV coverage
Apart from biometric machines, the campus will also come under CCTV coverage. Tenders have been floated for supply of 220 CC TV cameras at a cost of ₹50 lakh. “These cameras will cover all the departments and for the hostels we will have a separate tender,” said Prof. Nageswara Rao.
The V-C informed The Hindu that a team of police officers have already visited the campus and have selected the locations to install the cameras. Apart from the departments, they will be installed at all strategic locations, he said. The cameras will be hooked to a 24/7 monitoring room. The suppliers will erect LCD displays at the monitoring room and staff will be present monitor the campus, said Prof. Nageswara Rao.
Total Automation
The 91-year-old university is also all set for total automation. A three-member committee comprising Prof. P.V.G.D. Prasad Reddy, Prof. Krishna Mohan and Prof. L.B. Sudhakar Babu, is studying various options on how to go for total automation.
According to the V-C, everything right from E-filing to file tracking and from admission to award of degree to a student will come under the automation programme.
