Uddhav asks Maharashtra Chief Secretary to plan shifts at Mantralaya, Work-From-Home

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday asked the state's chief secretary to draw up a plan to implement two working shifts at Mantralaya, the government's administrative headquarters.

At the NITI Aayog meeting last week, Thackeray had talked about the need to adopt staggered office timings to lessen crowding in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

Amid rising COVID-19 cases in the state, Thackeray also asked chief secretary Sanjay Kumar to explore which government departments can run at full capacity with employees working from home, an official statement said.

The chief minister was speaking at a meeting with representatives of the gazetted officers' association at his official residence `Varsha' here.

Mantralaya is located in south Mumbai.

Maharashtra should take the initiative and start a new work culture, the chief minister said.

"We should start this new work style where work can be completed with full capacity and properly and there will be less COVID-19 threat too."

"The officers' association should take initiative and see how office timings at Mantralaya can be planned in two shifts, taking everybody into confidence," the statement quoted the CM as saying.

Thackeray also asked the chief secretary to plan vaccination for all officers and staff at Mantralaya as frontline workers on priority.

Steps should be taken in a day or two to restrict the number of outside visitors at Mantralaya, he said.

Also, body temperatures of staff at Mantralaya should be checked every day, the chief minister said.

An arrangement should be made to conduct antigen tests so that infected individuals do not enter Mantralaya, he instructed.