There are 18 scanners for about 5,000 employees in three offices of the ministry in Delhi - 10 in North Block and rest in the Lok Nayak Bhavan and Jaisalmer House offices.

The ministry is to examine the pattern and the performance of employees and working of the new system Sep 15. The first 15-day record will be sent to the administrative division.

Within eight days of installing the scanners, the employees in the ministry have found their own way of reaching on time.

'They come together by car pooling, catching the same buses and alerting each other if anybody gets late,' the official said.

The employees who complain of frequent traffic jams on Delhi roads may not be too happy within even if they are abiding by the rules so far, but the punctuality drive has given commoners a reason to smile.

People in India are used to waiting patiently for government employees to come for duty. The lack of punctuality causes huge delays in processing documents.

Chidambaram, while inaugurating the system, said other offices will follow suit. 'I hope that people absorb the spirit and the purpose with which this system has been introduced. But this is a message to the whole country that everybody must do his work for the allotted time.'

'I understand flexi time, we will introduce some flexibility, but the flexibility is if you come 10 or 15 minutes late, you have to work another 10 or 15 minutes,' he had said in his stern message.

(Sarwar Kashani can be contacted at s.kashani@ians.in)