Kerala: LSGD sets up war room to coordinate local body activities

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the wake of increasing Covid cases and local bodies having a significant role to play in undertaking field-level activities, local self-government department (LSGD) has set up a war room to coordinate the activities of local bodies.
The war room has been set up by including representatives from panchayat directorate, urban directorate, rural development commissionerate, town and country planning department, Suchitwa Mission, MGNREGS and Kudumbashree. Heads of these departments have been asked to nominate one officer, who is not below the rank of an assistant director, as a representative of the concerned department to the war room.
The main task of the war room will be the analysis of data, made available from the health department, and coordinating tasks of nodal officers who have been appointed to each local body across the state.
The war room will instruct them on the issues that need focus based on the data from health department. The data will be on test positivity rates, vaccination, functioning of FLTCs, details of ambulances that are pressed into Covid duty in each local body, updates on Covid Jagratha portal, details of volunteers in Covid control duty and the funds spent on Covid duty by each local body.
The nodal officers appointed to each local body, would report to the president and the secretary of the concerned local body without becoming a parallel reporting authority. The nodal officers should also share the report of shortcomings, if any, and the activities being undertaken in each local body to the concerned local body president and the secretary, district disaster management authority (DDMA) and the war room. The nodal officers would be appointed from a pool of officials, selected by the DDMA.
Last week, government had come up with detailed guidelines on the role and responsibilities of local bodies in fighting the pandemic. Government had issued guidelines amid criticism from various districts that local bodies aren’t active as they were during the first wave of the pandemic last year.
According to the order, local bodies should form ward-level monitoring committees and rapid response teams that are responsible for community surveillance in wards, create awareness among the public about symptoms and testing, undertake immediate measures in case of emergency, ensure that people follow Covid protocol and large-scale gathering and unsafe travel are controlled.
The committees also have the task of ensuring that those in home quarantine receive proper facilities, failing which they must be taken to FLTCs. In places where prohibitory orders are prevailing under CrPC Section 144, local bodies are tasked with ensuring the functioning of community kitchens. Ensuring proper and scientific disposal of waste, especially used masks, PPE kits, gloves and other biomedical wastes also forms a major task of local bodies. Local bodies had played a significant role in undertaking community-level containment activities during the first wave of the pandemic last year. However, in most local bodies, the then existing team was changed after election in December 2020 and new teams are yet to get accustomed to their roles and responsibilities.