Presence of officials was thin in Civil Secretariat Jammu after six heads of departments went into quarantine within hours when a top ranking IAS officer was tested positive for Covid19.
“The presence of employees is less in comparison to normal days. The employees are in distress,” said President, Civil Secretariat Non-Gazetted Employees Union, Rauf Ahmed Bhat.
Even as many officials from different departments have self quarantined, but they have continued working from home.
However, many officials and employees remained away from their offices. Similar was the situation of departments headed by officials presently in quarantine as the junior officials had attended meetings or interacted with them.
An officer told the Greater Kashmir, “We will give our samples after remaining in quarantine for five days. Presently, we are working from home. Most of our officers are in quarantine though some employees are attending the office.”
“Though we had not attended the meeting, but we were around that day where the top ranking officer (who later tested positive) was present,” he said.
Today disinfectants were sprayed in all the offices of Civil Secretariat. Officials questioned why video conferencing was not preferred and why meetings were allowed knowing consequences of Covid19. “Our families are also insecure now,” an official who had met the Covid positive officer said.
Even as the civil secretariat has installed a sanitization tunnel at entrance, the official said that senior officers entering the secretariat in their vehicles should also be sanitized.