Venkaiah Naidu finds no staff members even at 9:10 am in office

New Delhi: Union minister Venkaiah Naidu was in for a nasty surprise when he landed up at a ministry office on a surprise visit.

Around 80 staffers of the urban development and housing and urban poverty alleviation ministries were found missing when Mr Naidu landed up at 9.10 am. This was his second surprise visit. The names of the errant officials were noted down.

The surprise check at Nirman Bhavan is also understood to have prompted the enforcement of a bio-metric attendance system. An official statement said a bio-metric attendance system will soon be installed to mark attendance in these ministries.

Sources stated that the minister took a serious view of the tendency of absenteeism and coming late for work among the employees. He had a small consolation: Mr Naidu is learnt to have noted that cleanliness at the Nirman Bhavan had improved since his last inspection on June 12.