Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Jul 3: Chief minister, B S Yediyurappa, who chaired a meeting with officials on Thursday, July 2 on the issue of managing COVID-19 situation, instructed the chief secretaries to take strong steps against those entrusted with coronavirus duty staying away from duty.

The chief minister came to his home office, 'Krishna', after a gap of seven days. He discussed all issues concerned with the principal secretaries and other senior officials for long. He did not involve ministers in the discussions and confined the meeting to officials alone. During this meeting, it came to light that some officials posted on coronavirus duty have been staying away from work.

The chief minister instructed the state chief secretary, T M Vijay Bhaskar, to suspend absentee officials from service. Accordingly, two doctors have been suspended from service.

In a tweet thereafter, the chief minister said that absence from duty by the staff deployed for coronavirus control duty cannot be tolerated. He said that disciplinary action has been taken against such persons, duly reminding the concerned that a lot of human resources would be required to handle this issue of global magnitude and urged everyone to join hands by discharging their respective responsibilities to humble coronavirus.

The chief minister's office has published the suspension order of Prof S M Sridar Rao of Ayurveda Medical College.

There is a proposal to tighten rules regarding coronavirus control once SSLC examinations conclude. To take a suitable decision on this issue, the cabinet meeting has been called at 11 am on July 9.