Worst-hit Ganjam gets bureaucratic help

Bhubaneswar: In view of the rising number of Covid cases in Ganjam district, the state government on Saturday deputed two young IAS and six senior OAS officers to the district.
Ganjam, which has emerged as the worst-hit district in the state, has reported nearly 500 fresh cases in the last two days.
According to a notification issued by the general administration department, two IAS officers — Parul Patawari and Vishal Singh — have been appointed as special additional district magistrates (ADM) with specific charges. Parul, a 2015-batch IAS officer, will be in-charge of Chhatrapur sub-division while Vishal, a 2016-batch officer, will look after Bhanjanagar sub-division.
The six OAS officers are Sudhakar Nayak, Padmanav Behera, Lokanath Dalabehera, Shaktikanta Ray, Chittaranjan Mohanta and Suvendu Kumar Samal. They have been asked to report to Ganjam collector Vijay Amruta Kulange.
The officers will assist the district administration in contact tracing, implementing containment strategies and other Covid-related management work. The extra manpower has been given keeping in mind the situation on the ground. “The state government has been keeping a close watch on Ganjam,” a government official said.
Sources said the state government might depute more senior bureaucrats and health experts to contain the spread of the virus in the most populous district of Odisha if necessary.
When contacted, additional chief secretary (health department) P K Mohapatra said he has been personally monitoring the situation in the district with the help of the collector on a daily basis. A team of senior health experts had visited the district a week ago to take stock of the situation, Mohapatra said.
Of the total 8,601 cases reported till Saturday, 2,066 are from Ganjam. Similarly, the southern district also account for 20 of the total 34 Covid deaths in the state.
The detection of positive cases from local contacts remains a cause of concern for the district administration. Though there was no positive case in the district till April-end, the cases rose during May and June.
More than 2.5 lakh migrants have returned to the district from different states. Of them, the majority returned from Surat in Gujarat.