Man with a mission to flatten the Covid curve in Bihar
Is he the man with the magic wand that Nitish Kumar reposes his faith in him everytime an undaunting task is at hand and questions get raised on the performance of the Government? The 1991 batch IAS officer Pratyay Amrit is saddled with the toughest job at hand and most efficiently he manages to script a success regardless of the seemingly insurmountable barriers which are so characteristic of any government department . He is now acclaimed as one who breaks the inertia of any non performing government department and sets the machinery rolling almost similar to a corporate sector.
As the state government was being cornered from all sides for its “lax handling” of the Covid situation and allegations came flying from all corners that the testings were very poor in the state and that data was being fudged Umesh Singh Kumawat was removed from the post of health secretary and the responsibility was handed over to Pratyay
Amrit on 27 July 2020.
During the tenure of Kumawat the total number of testings for Corona hovered around 8 to 10000 despite repeated appeals from the Bihar CM to increase the testing. In less that 8 days of taking charge Prtayay Amrit the new health secretary has taken the testing to a total of 71000 per day. Hardly 10 days ago videos of patients facing harrowing times in most of Covid treatment wards went viral on social media and doctors and nurses went on constant strikes. The problem seems to have subsided like froth in less than 10 days . No more hartals by doctors and the complains of patients too seem to have vanished. The IAS officer prefers to lead from the front. He is a team leader who believes the team should be motivated to deliver even under most difficult circumstances. That’s precisely what he did as managing director of Bihar Rajya pul Nirman Nigam Ltd in 2006 and sought into prominence. Subsequently he shaped the roads across the state after joining as managing director Bihar state road development corporation in feb 2011. Subsequently, he was made the chairman and the managing director of Bihar state power holding company ltd in June 2014 . While handling the power department he provided electricity to every household in the state of Bihar by 25th October 2018 earning him much international accolades. Talking to The Sunday Guardian, he recalled how difficult the task was. “We would process the documents on what’s app, we used inflatable motorboats to send our engineers to remote riverine sights and at times even choppers so we could complete the task of 100 percent household electrification much before the stipulated time. This would not have been possible had I not got the cooperation of the young engineers whom we hired in a big way and the experience of the senior ones.”
As health secretary of a state which has earned the dubious distinction of having the poorest health service across the country the man is trying to script a change . The biggest challenge presently for the man in action is to provide immediate health care to the ailing Covid patients followed by flattening the growing curve of Corona cases in the state.
Days after joining he issued helpline numbers and set up medical control room for all districts.
Pratyay Amrit said, “It’s a huge challenge and if the growth in positive cases have to be curbed the first thing that needed to be done was to augment the testing facility followed by isolation and contact tracing and subsequently treatment.”
Now an app has also been developed which is medical health bulletin to appraise the attendants of the health condition of their patients.