It’s still business as usual in Civil Secretariat amid surging COVID cases

Jammu: Alarming spike in COVID cases in the Omicron-led third wave has not left even the seat of governance in J&K i.e., Civil Secretariat in general and its administrative nerve-centre in particular unscathed.

As per trends witnessed during the past one week, which saw intensified testing on a wider scale, scores of employees working in different departments tested positive in the Civil Secretariat. Those infected also included the Commissioner/Secretary or Principal/Secretary rank officers.

As per official statistics, even today, over 60 tested positive in the Civil Secretariat. However, the biggest consolation is that despite surging cases, it’s still “business as usual” there.

And if one goes by the assertion of Principal Secretary to the government Manoj Kumar Dwivedi, the biggest takeaway from the scenario emerging is that the e-office and ‘work from home’ have come as handy tools to overcome the impact of pandemic in an effective manner.

Nevertheless, the situation is not very rosy. Gravity of the situation can be gauged with a revelation by one of the employees working in the Secretariat that one particular section in the nerve-centre of the administration is presently being manned by just a skeletal staff of around 14 persons as majority of its employees tested positive in the past few days.

Some are availing seven-day period recovery leave while few at the senior level are working from home.

A visit to the Civil Secretariat, one comes across queues of visitors as usual though now Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) has been made mandatory for them to gain entry. Till yesterday, their testing was being conducted at the very place where the passes are issued. As this has created a chaos like situation so from today onwards the testing is being conducted near an earmarked place along “Lion-Goat sculpture” outside the Secretariat.

Yet another employee complains that the absence of special provisions to contain the spread is making the situation worrisome. “See the Central Registry Unit (CRU) has become a risk zone where the employees are handling ‘Dak’ manually,” another employee laments while pointing out lack of special facilities for the employees to contain the spread of virus.

But Dwivedi, broadly, differs with these observations.

“Among major steps we’ve taken on this account was compulsory testing. Everyone in the Secretariat had to undergo testing. This began last week with the surge in cases. Initially we had deployed 6-7 teams for testing. They conducted testing of all Secretariat employees in one go. Now, three teams are camping for testing purposes in the Secretariat– one team dedicated for each floor. Besides, we’ve issued instructions restricting the visiting hours to some extent. Unlike the normal days, now the people cannot visit the Secretariat throughout the day (during working hours). Now visitors are allowed only during the second half of the day,” he points out.

According to him, another significant decision is that every visitor will have to undergo mandatory Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) to gain entry in the Secretariat.

“For attendance monitoring, we are presently using a face-recognition system instead of bio-metric attendance which has been suspended for the time being due to risk involved vis-a-vis spread of infection. However, the frisking at the entry using machines is part of the police SOP to ensure that no one can enter with a weapon or other object infringing security. So that cannot be suspended but the instructions are in place to take adequate precautions to check spread of infection,” he stated.

“Another important measure taken is with regard to conduct of meetings. More than fifty percent people are allowed to attend the meetings through video-conferencing, either at home or at remote places. If the meetings are to be conducted in the Secretariat only, then we spread them (participants) in our three meeting-halls and connect them using a video-conferencing facility. Some senior officers have already been provided with this facility (video-conferencing) in their respective rooms so they join from there,” Principal Secretary specifies.

Responding to a question about the reports suggesting that his own department i.e., General Administration Department was the worst affected in the pandemic, he stated, “Yes, it suffered the major impact because it is the biggest department with the highest strength of employees. But now the situation has improved as many have joined back after recovery. For a brief period, it impacted functioning yet not at a large scale. Saving grace is that remote access is provided under an e-office facility so the people can work from home and finish file work from their places only.”

Further elaborating on this account, he said, “There had been instances where officers went into isolation after they contracted infection. Barring one or two days when they had fever, by and large, they did file work and their other work from their residences also. So even before they turn negative and report back, they have been doing their work. By and large, the functioning was not impacted. My officers have been very responsible. They kept on working.”

Is there any plan to devise a system with fifty percent staff attending to duties physically and rest being allowed to work from home in the days to come, given the gravity of the situation amid alarming surge in COVID cases, his response to this question was negative.

“See, our forty percent staff is already in Srinagar in the wake of the decision to function simultaneously from both Jammu and Srinagar. Unlike the previous practice, this time the entire secretariat has not moved. This time, we’ve roughly sixty percent (staff) strength of what we used to have in the past during this period here. So this has already cut the strength to a desired level. Secretariat offices cannot be compared with other offices, which function with a hundred percent strength,” he stated.

“Even otherwise we’ve been liberal with the employees with co-morbidities. We’ve sanctioned leave in their favour. We’ve preferred them to work from home. Normally the facility of ‘work from home’ is available for people of the rank of Deputy Secretary and above. But as a special case, depending upon the nature of work the person is doing, we relax rules. There are also certain under secretaries who are doing duties which are “24X7” in nature, they too have been extended this facility. It is usually, on a case to case basis, depending upon the work profile of the officer concerned,” Dwivedi specified.

“Besides, in the past couple of days, we’ve become quite strict vis-a-vis imposition of restrictions including masking and this has eased a situation quite a bit in the Secretariat. In any case, with the e-office, it is easier to perform and deliver for the government. Moreover, the government too has adopted a ‘work from home’ facility and that has helped us in getting the work expedited despite the people being in isolation,” Dwivedi stated.