Pvt med colleges reel under attendance ‘scam’
Times of India | 16 September 2025It is mandatory for faculty to mark their attendance through the Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance system (AEBAS). Earlier, it was based on fingerprint authentication. But a fraud involving silicon fingers prompted the commission to shift to the facial authentication system. On April 16, NMC issued a notice directing medical colleges to use the face-based Aadhaar authentication system from May 1.
Under the new system, faculty members have to mark attendance by looking at their mobile and blinking their eyes within a designated 100-m geo-fenced area on the college premises.
According to sources, the faculties are taking the help of "a Chinese software" and "cloned SIM cards" and uploading "eye-blinking videos" to be marked present on the NMC portal.
There are about 11 private medical colleges in the state. A source said, "The scam is mostly happening in colleges in Krishnagore, Chakdah, Durgapur, and Burdwan." TOI spoke to principals, faculty members, and health department officials who conceded the occurrence of the fraud.
They also pointed out a nexus among management, faculty, and health officials behind the scam.
"The college managements have made contracts with the teachers, including retired medical professors, for teaching three days a week, and they get the remuneration accordingly. Most of these teachers, being from Kolkata, have made a scramble for the fraud," said a source.
According to NMC norms, all faculty members are supposed to teach on all working days.
College owners and management staffers have introduced this fraudulence in the attendance system to hide the ghost faculties. During NMC inspection, they bring all the teachers to the college, according to the source.
Some faculty members alleged they are being compelled by the management to opt for the fraud. "I have been getting calls from the management almost daily at night, and the caller tries to bring me under the fold of the fraud," a faculty member said.
Tushar Kanti Saha, principal of the Institute of Medical Science at Krishnagore, agreed that the attendance scam has turned out to be a common SOP in most private colleges. "There is patronage of some influential people behind the fraud. If a principal takes action, the person will either be removed or will face other dire consequences," he feared.
A health official said, "We will start swooping down on the colleges where this fraud is going on."
Mukul Bhattacharyya, VC of West Bengal University of Health Sciences, said, "If anyone complains to the NMC about this, action will be taken against those involved in the malpractice."
