Daijiworld Media Network - Panjim (SS)

Panjim, Apr 21: As state government offices reopened on Monday, the general public refrained from visiting these offices.

After a gap of around a month of lockdown necessitated to control the spread of the coronavirus, over 17,000 government employees resumed work on Monday following the central government permitting the relaxation of certain lockdown restrictions.

Dashrath Redkar, the additional collector commented that none of the residents visited the North Goa collectorate for matters such as getting residence certificates. He added that people have been coming only to seek permission to resume activities during the lockdown. Rajan Satardekar, transport director claimed that no people visited the transport department headquarters for day-to-day work. The department workers have begun clearing pending files and preparing new proposals. Narayan Gad, the director of panchayats said that even though there were no visitors in his office, the employees have begun pre-monsoon work such as issuing permissions for repair of houses and sanitization of village panchayats.

The government offices opened with a staff strength of 33%. The heads of departments have instructed employees to work on alternate day shifts across three time slots. Remaining employees will work from home.

The HODs shall not convene meetings during the functioning of government departments unless they are very necessary. HODs have been directed by the government to avoid calling field functionaries to the office in a routine manner. Meetings are to be conducted through video conference as much as possible.

The departments have also been requested to keep their staff at home in case of them showing symptoms such as cough, cold as fever, and are further instructed to seek medical advice. The prescription and advice of the doctor should be sent digitally to the HODs.