Straight Line News Network
Jammu, 1 June: Eighty-six persons including many top IAS/KAS officers were identified as contacts of a top bureaucrat, who tested positive for Corona yesterday and were sent for home quarantine.
Official sources said that the administration has identified around 45 contacts of a Corona positive senior IAS officer in Jammu and 41 in Kashmir in the rank of Principal Secretary, Commissioner/ Secretary and Secretaries among others, and asked them to quarantine at home. Majority of them are officers and officials besides the family members.
The bureaucrat was late last night shifted to Narayana Hospital at Kakryal in Katra.
There was a clear violation of SOP as the officer held meetings after being sampled instead of self-isolating. In Srinagar, sources said, the Corona positive IAS officer had chaired meetings at Srinagar Airport and one each at Civil Secretariat Srinagar and Divisional Commissioner’s office and he had 41 primary contacts there including top bureaucrats and officials, all of whom have been quarantined.
They include a Principal Secretary, four Secretaries, three senior IAS officers, Airport officials, paramilitary official, senior officials of the Health Department and prominent functionaries of Srinagar Municipal Corporation.
Yesterday, a top bureaucrat, a Financial Commissioner, a Principal Secretary, another senior IAS officer in Disaster Management Authority, a KAS officer, the GMC Jammu Principal, Director National Health Mission, Director Health Services Jammu, Managing Director Medical Supplies Corporation, Microbiologist, Epidemiologist etc had gone on home quarantine after the IAS officer tested positive as all of them had attended a meeting with him.
Seven senior bureaucrats who were today sent on home quarantine for being contacts of the positive IAS officer included three in the rank of Principal Secretaries, one Commissioner/Secretary, a senior Commissioner and two Secretaries. After attending the meeting with the IAS positive, the senior officers had proceeded to their houses and were with their families whose family members are in Jammu. However, families of some of the officers were not here, sources pointed out.
Two senior officers in Kashmir, both IAS including a District Magistrate were sampled this morning and both of them tested negative for the virus. One of them was primary contact of the IAS officer while another one was secondary contact.
The crew of the flight from Srinagar to Jammu in which the senior IAS officer was on board is also likely to be quarantined. Other passengers of the flight have already been sampled and were under administrative quarantine. The administration has written to the Airlines authorities for quarantine of the staff.
Sources confirmed that as per the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of the J&K Government, the bureaucrat on his return from Srinagar and sampling at the Airport had to be quarantined till the report of his test was available. Or he had to isolate himself at the house till the report and carried out work of urgent nature from home.
“The SOP has been clearly violated in this case,” they pointed out but declined to elaborate as to how it happened. The administration will now face tough time as top bureaucrats will have to work from home till their quarantine period is over.
An Advisor’s wife and son, who had tested Corona positive few days back and were admitted in Narayana Hospital at Kakryal Katra, were discharged today after testing negative twice, officials said.
Flying Escort Gypsy driver of top bureaucrat in the rank of Financial Commissioner today also tested Corona positive after his return from Anantnag district in South Kashmir where he had gone for Eid celebrations at home. He had parked the Gypsy at Anantnag District Police Lines (DPL), where some of cops had already tested positive. On his return, he was sampled at Nagrota and today he tested positive. However, the driver, a resident of Nawabad, Sunjwan, hadn’t come in contact with the Financial Commissioner after his return from the Valley as he had been sent into administrative quarantine.
