Odisha appoints senior IAS officers as COVID-19 observers in charge of districts

Bhubaneswar, Apr 27 () Ahead of the arrival ofabout 5 lakh migrant workers stranded in different states dueto lockdown imposed to contain COVID-19 pandemic, Odishagovernment has set up dedicated teams of bureaucrats to lookafter specific areas.

Additional Chief Secretary P K Mohapatra has beenappointed in charge of the Health and Family Welfaredepartment, officials said.

As many as 57 IAS, IPS and IFS officers have beenentrusted with specific responsibilities while all thegovernment officials beginning from Tehsildar to DGP areengaged in the war against coronavirus.

An official release said that 22 IAS officers havebeen given responsibilities of 30 districts while a team of 2IAS, 3 IPS and 1 IFS officer will look after registration ofthe migrant workers coming from other states. The team willalso monitor the call centre set up for the migrant workers,it said.

P K Mohapatra, who has the vast experience in thehealth sector, will function as the ACS, H&FW department whilethe existing department secretary N B Dhal will work as usualin his position.

Mohapatra was appointed in the H&FW department to meetthe requirement of massive coordination work with other statesand the Centre for the return of migrant workers, students,professionals, pilgrims and patients stranded in differentplaces across the country.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been taking stock ofthe corona situation on a day-to-day basis and has directedappointment of senior IAS officers as COVID-19 observers tovarious districts, a statement said.

State governments COVID-19 spokesperson SubrotoBagchi has said that the state will take its fight to Stage-4against Coronavius after arrival of migrant workers.

He clarified that tackling the foreign returnees wasstage-I of the fight while containing the spread of the virusafter return of the Nizamuddin participants was the Stage-IIand West Bengal returnees created ground for Stage-III fight.Now, containing the spread after arrival of the migrantworkers will be the Stage-IV fight, he said.

The official statement said that IAS officers Anu Gargand N Tirumala Nayak are given the charge of Bhubaneswar Citywhich reported the highest 46 COVID-19 cases while MS Padhiand Ratnakar Rout will look after two other hotspots Balasoreand Bhadrak districts.

Similarly, Saurabh Garg and Susanta Mohapatra areassigned the responsibility of Cuttack City and Cuttack Ruralwhile Surendra Kumar and Srikant Prusty will look afterMayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts

G Mathivathanan and Krishan Kumar are given charge ofGanjam and Gajapati districts while Hemant Sharma and SureshChandra Dalai given the charge of Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur andKendrapara districts.

Bishnupada Sethi and Gopabandhu Satpathy will lookafter Angul, Deogarh and Dhenkanal districts while SushilKumar Lohani and Benudhar Behera given charge of Bolangir,Bargarh and Nuapada districts.

Saswata Mishra and Bishnu Prasad Mishra are givenKalahandi, Kandhamal and Boudh districts while V.V. Yadav andRashid Khan will look after Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada andNabarangpur districts.

Anil Kumar Samal has been given the charge ofNayagarh, Puri, Cuttack Rural, Khordha Rural while NiranjanSahu assigned the responsibilities of Sambalpur, Sonepur,Jharsuguda, Sundargarh districts.

Meanwhile, the total number of COVID-19 patients inOdisha increased to 108 with Balasore reporting five morefresh cases on Monday.

Of the 108 cases, Khurda including Bhubaneswarreported 46 cases followed by Jajpur with 18, Bhardak-16,Balasore, 15, Sundergarh-6, two each in Kalahandi andKendrapara and one each from Cuttack, Puri and Dhenkanal. AAMRG RG