Govt reconstitutes six empowered groups to ten for Covid management

The Centre on Saturday reconstituted six empowered groups into ten to tackle the current Covid-19 crisis in the country.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said in an order that Niti Aayog (health) member V.K. Paul will lead two committees – emergency management plan and strategy and vaccination who will oversee procurement, manufacturing, import, logistics, daily supply and utilisation and amount of vaccine wastage.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan will lead the empowered panel for emergency response capabilities which include hospital (beds and ICU), equipment and medicines.

Giridhar Aramane, Union Secretary, ministry of road transport and highways will head the empowered committee for oxygen requirements of the country which include production, imports, logistics, equipment, PSA plants and conversion of industrial oxygen to medical oxygen.

Union Labour Secretary Apurva Chandra has been appointed head of the empowered committee for augmenting human resource and capacity building.

Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Balaram Bhargava will head an empowered committee for testing.

Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog will head the empowered committee for partnerships with private sectors, NGOs and international organisations.

Secretary, Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Amit Khare has been made head of the empowered committee for information, communication and public engagement.

Secretary DEA, Ajay Seth has been appointed head of the empowered committee for economic and welfare measures which oversee coordination of economic measures and emerging issues relating to growth and employment.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla has been appointed head of the empowered group for pandemic response and coordination which include overseeing containment measures and guidelines, centre states coordination, legal and administrative aspects, and logistics and supply chain management.