Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bihar government is all set to take action against 198 doctors who were found absent from their duty on different dates.
The State Health Department had, earlier, cancelled all leave, except maternal and study leave, for doctors and healthcare personnel till April 30.
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The Bihar government also enforced the Epidemic Diseases COVID-19 Regulation 2020 on March 17.
The State government on Monday transferred civil surgeons in 16 districts.
The State Health Department found 76 doctors absent from duty on March 31, 60 on April 1 and 62 on April 2.
Later, the department issued show-cause notices to 76 government doctors, while giving them three-days’ time to respond.
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“The process of sending show-cause notices to another 122 doctors too has been started and will be issued against them soon”, said a senior Health Department Official.
“They have been asked why action against them should not be proceeded against relevant sections of the Epidemic Disease Act, 1897 and the Disaster Management Act, 2005”, Principal Health Secretary Sanjay Kumar said.
“This is an emergency-like situation as everyone is on their toes to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic and especially the doctors are not supposed to act like this…strict action will be taken against those found absent on these dates without any valid reason”, said another senior official of the department.
Meanwhile, in a sudden move on Monday, the Health Department replaced 16 civil surgeons of the districts to speed up preparedness against COVID-19 in their respective areas.
The civil surgeons of Katihar, Gopalgunj, Madhubani, Saharsa, Samastipur, Jamui, Khagaria, Sheohar, Purnia, Siwan, Rohtas and other districts have been replaced.
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However, in the last 48 hours, there has been no fresh case of COVID-19 reported from Bihar. The total number of cases in the State stands at 32, with one death.
The Bihar government has set up about 3,200 quarantine camps in government schools at Panchayat level, where more than 27,000 migrants are put up. “The other migrants who recently have come from other States have been asked to be under home quarantine”, said an official.
Over 1.70 lakh migrants returned to their home in different districts of Bihar in the last 10 days due to COVID-19.
Financial aid
The State government on Monday announced that financial assistance of ₹1,000 was credited to the bank accounts of 1.03 lakh migrant workers of Bihar working in other States, through DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) system.
“A total sum of ₹10.35 crore was transferred on Monday to their accounts”, confirmed an official.