U’khand official on Covid duty dies during training programme

RUDRAPUR: A 47-year-old government officer heading a Covid-19 city response team (CRT) in Kichha area of Uttarakhand’s US Nagar district died during a training programme related to documenting migrants coming from other states, officials said on Monday.

Jaswant Singh, who was an assistant engineer in Public Works Department (PWD) in Rudrapur, was appointed in-charge of the city response team (CRT) in Kichha municipality area by the district administration for fighting the epidemic, officials said.

During a training programme on Sunday, his colleagues at first thought he had fallen asleep and carried on with the training programme.

However, even after the training ended Singh did not wake up and later fell over, officials said. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.

“He had come to impart training but said at the beginning of the programme itself that he was feeling sleepy and unwell because of late-night duty at a quarantine centre in Rudrapur. He reclined on the chair asking other senior officials to continue the training. Throughout the training programme, all of us kept thinking that he was sleeping ,” said Praveen Singh, data operator in Kichha municipality.

Praveen Singh said, “When the programme got over and he didn’t move, we tried to wake him up. Seeing him unconscious, some of us sprinkled water on his face. He was rushed to the government hospital where the doctors declared him brought dead.”

A training programme was held in the meeting hall of Kichha municipality in the evening on Sunday. As in-charge of the CRT, Jaswant Singh had to impart training to Asha and Anganwadi workers of the area about how to fill the new format.

A new format was received from the district administration for documenting migrants from other states.