Govt claims 98 pc attendance of employees at secretariat

Ehsan Fazili

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August  20

Two weeks after the lockdown and communication blockade began in Jammu and Kashmir, the Civil Secretariat on Monday continued to wear a deserted look, even as the government claimed 98 per cent attendance of the employees at the secretariat, the highest so far.

The attendance in the Civil Secretariat was registered at 98 per cent on Monday as compared to the mere one-third on Friday, said the Director of Information, Syed Sehrish Asghar, at a press confrence on Monday. She said all essential services, including power, public health engineering, health services and civil supplies, were in place and the employees deployed. The attendance in government offices was “picking up rapidly”, the Director of Information said.

There has been less movement of vehicles of senior officers in the past two weeks after the Centre’s decision on the revocation of Article 370 and dividing the state into two UTs on August 5. Four of the five Advisers to the Governor have been engaged in gearing up the administration for the maintenance of law and order situation and the restoration of routine work in the government offices. The government offices and educational institutions have been closed for the past two weeks, though some of the offices have resumed public services lately.

“More than 60 per cent of the employees in the secretariat registered their presence on Monday,” an official said. He said this had been the highest so far in the past fortnight. Many (secretariat) employees from the Jammu region, who had returned to their places in view of the lockdown and communication blockade, had returned to work, according to the officials.