Four contractual staffers lose job over “lungi dance” at Covid centre

: Four contractual employees of the health directorate’s state-level Covid control/ command centre lost their job on Friday over attempting the signature steps to the tune of the song “lungi dance” from the Bollywood film Chennai Express.

A strict warning was issued to the agency that hired these employees on contract.

“We have removed four employees — three women and a man — who were seen dancing while other staff didn’t break the office decorum. Also, the agency that hired these contractual staffers has been given a warning in this matter,” said Dr DS Negi, director general (medical health).

The others watched the four dancing but did not participate (as seen in the video that went viral).

The state-level Covid control/ command centre was set up at the health directorate building to attend to calls from Covid patients. This command centre also attends to calls from people regarding any medical problem post Covid vaccination. It works 24x7. The district-level Covid

command centre is separate and is run by a separate team.

“The incident, a video of which we received, took place on February 12,” said the director general.

In the 30-second video, four employees are seen dancing to the tune of the song from Chennai Express. The original song had featured actors Shahrukh Khan and Deepika Padukone on screen.

The video of the Covid command centre staff went viral late on Thursday night. In the first few seconds, two staff members are seen dancing and later two more joined them. The video was made in the working hours when, for some time, the network in the office got disturbed.

“This cannot be tolerated. The office is a place of work and no leisure or entertainment can be approved,” said Dr Negi.

The state-level command centre located on the fourth floor of the building helps in contact tracing, replies to queries by common people, finds solutions to issues such as ambulance availability in any part of the state and people from across the state call up over issues related to Covid.