Admin starts sanitization of Jammu Secretariat
86 officials placed under quarantine after IAS officer tests positive for Covid-19
Jammu: Two days after a senior IAS officer tested positive for novel coronavirus, authorities on Monday started sanitization of the Jammu secretariat which houses among others the offices of Lieutenant Governor, his advisors besides top bureaucrats.
Sources said that authorities decided to spray disinfectants and carry out sanitization of the entire building after the commissioner/secretary ranked IAS officer was found infected with COVID-19.
In the aftermath of the late Saturday evening confirmation of the bureaucrat testing positive for the virus, eighty-six persons including many top IAS and KAS officers have been identified as the immediate contacts of the officer.
Sources said that all of them, some in the ranks of Principal and Commissioner Secretaries, have been sent for home quarantine.
Sources said that 45 contacts of the senior IAS officer have been identified in Jammu and 41 in Kashmir. Besides officers and officials, the contacts include the family members and all of them have been advised home quarantine, they added.
Notably, Lieutenant Governor Girish Chander Murmu has taken a serious note of the alleged violations of the Standard operating procedures (SOPs) by the officials while holding meetings, sources said.
“Almost the entire health department administration that participated in the meetings chaired by the top bureaucrat has been sent to home and administrative quarantine,” an officer of the health department said.
The top bureaucrat, who tested positive for COVID-19, was a nodal officer for Kashmir, the officials said.
“Those who have been quarantined include 12 IAS officers,” they said.
Sanitisation of all the offices and complexes of the civil secretariat was carried out on Monday, the officials said.
The employees were not allowed entry into the building during the operation, they said.
The Raj Bhavan has taken a serious note of the alleged violations of the SOPs during meetings by the top officials, the sources said.
Employees are annoyed over the holding of daily meetings where SOPs are violated, they said.
Some officers on the condition of anonymity alleged that top bureaucrats are forcing them to physically be present in meetings and this has been conveyed to the Lt Governor.
“Why can’t meetings be held through video-conferencing,” one of the officers said.
Sources also alleged that in violation of the guidelines, some officers have been put up for quarantine in a hotel in which the disaster management centre has been set up thereby posing threat to staff members there. (with inputs from GNS, PTI)
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