State govt allows its offices to have 100% staff, with protocol

CHANDIGARH :The Punjab government has allowed its offices across the state to function with up to 100% staff, provided strict social distancing, and sanitisation protocol is followed.

The permission has been granted by the personnel department after chief secretary Karan Avtar Singh held a meeting with administrative secretaries of all departments.

“The heads of departments (HoDs) have been allowed to decide their staff requirement in office and they can have up to 100% attendance from today. They do not need special permission now, but have been asked to keep the chief secretary’s office in the loop,” a senior government officer said, quoting the instructions issued to all heads of departments , administrative secretaries and deputy commissioners on Wednesday.

The state government, which has 3.15 lakh employees, had only permitted the departments providing essential and emergency services such as health, police, power, water supply and fire to work with full staff strength till now whereas other departments that deal with nonessential services were allowed to first work with a skeletal staff and later have a maximum of 50% employees in the office at any time.

The restrictions on work from office have been eased even as Covid-19 positive cases saw an increase of almost 32% in the state during the past 15 days, going up from 2,139 on May 27 to 2,805 on June 10.

However, the personnel department has issued a strict protocol to check the spread of coronavirus.

“The departments have been directed to divide their staff into separate teams and ensure they do not meet each other so that if any employee tests positive, the entire working is not affected and only members of that particular team go into quarantine as per the guidelines issued by the health department,” said the official, who did not want to be named.

As for the departments working with less than 50% attendance, HoDs have been allowed to rotate their staff on a weekly basis or alternate days. The chief secretary had initially allowed weekly rotation of staff but some departments sought flexibility and more attendance in office, according to sources.

The latest guidelines have been issued after feedback was gathered by the chief secretary’s office from all HoDs through a 33-point questionnaire regarding their Covid-19 plan, sanitisation, compliance with social distancing norms, use of masks, sitting arrangements, etc.

RESTRICTIONS ON WORK FROM OFFICE HAVE BEEN EASED EVEN AS COVID-19 CASES SAW AN INCREASE OF ALMOST 32% IN THE STATE DURING PAST 15 DAYS