Top officers in quarantine, J&K govt working hit hard

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 1

The government functioning in J&K has been severely affected with its top bureaucratic brass under quarantine after a senior IAS officer tested positive of Covid-19 on Sunday creating an administrative crisis.

At least 90 senior officers of different ranks ranging from Financial Commissioners to the middle-rung head of the departments, who had interacted or come in contact with the officer on Sunday and before that have been quarantined, some of them are in self-isolation in their homes.

This has affected the file work, as the decision-making process has been suspended till the time these officers resume their duties, sources said. More worrying is that there are others in the government setup who have become extra cautious in forwarding the files.

“Everything cannot be done through emails,” a source privy to the impact of the quarantining of the officers has had on the working of the government. Some of the officials in the secretariat and other field departments are not touching their computers, and in the absence of 4G network in J&K, much of the matter cannot be transferred through phones.

More worrying is that some among the field staff of the departments have also tested positive. Their departments have stopped the work. “This has made the things more difficult, as even a single positive case is deemed to be serious enough for others to go in for self-isolation,” the sources said.

Senior officers to whom the Tribune was able to speak on Monday said the working had been severely affected and it would take some time before the things returned to tracks. This would also depend on the overall situation of the disease that had infected more people in the recent days.