After 2.5 months, govt offices up and running

Thiruvananthapuram: Most government offices in the state are up and running after two-and-a-half months. Offices were either shut down or have been functioning with sparse staff since March 25, when the nationwide lockdown came into effect due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
All government offices, public-sector undertakings, semi-governmental organizations and cooperative institutions -- except those in containment zones -- functioned normally on Monday. Department offices located in containment zones or hotspots, however, functioned with minimal staff from within the district.
At the Secretariat, employees turned up for work like any other normal day. Attendance will be monitored by joint secretaries and additional secretaries of the respective departments, as the punching system as well as manual attendance marking system have been temporarily suspended so as to avert any chances of virus spread.
“The eOffice suite, which the Secretariat has implemented, helps us effortlessly determine the number of employees who reported for work. But this has not been extended to the field offices, where we will depend on reports of senior officers to ascertain attendance,” general administration department sources said.
When public transport was suspended, the government had asked employees who could not reach their workplaces concerned in other districts can report to the nearest collectorate or local bodies. All such employees reported back to their original workplaces on Monday.
The government has also sought to exempt employees with mental and physical health issues from duties that require direct public interaction, as also parents of children below five years and those with parents above 65 years of age.
All offices have been asked to give top priority to clearing pending files. However, till further orders are issued, Saturdays will continue to remain a holiday.