COVID-19: Odisha Govt Directs Employees of 25 Departments Not to Attend Office

Bhubaneswar: As part of the social distancing measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Odisha Government asked the employees of 25 departments not to attend office.

The departments are Agriculture & FE, Cooperation, Excise, F&ARD, Forest & Environment, Handloom & Textiles, Higher Education, Law, Industries, Labour &ESI, MSME , OLL& Culture , Parliamentary Affairs , Planning & Convergence , Public Enterprises , Rural Development, School & ME, SSEPD , W&CD and MS , Science & Technology , SD&TE , Sports & Youth Services, Steel & Mines , Tourism and Water Resources.

The Government has asked the employees of the above mentioned departments to available at short notice whenever required. The employees have also been instructed to monitor and supervise over phone the work related to their departments in the field.

In view of the lockdown declared in Bhubaneswar and other parts of the State from 7AM, March 22 to 9 PM, March 29, to manage various works related to COVID-19 by various government departments, a classification has been made of the departments as critical, partially critical and non-critical, said a notification issued by the General Administration and Public Grievance Department.

The critical departments are FS&CW, GA&PG, H&UD, Health & Family Welfare, Home and SRC & OSDMA.

All the employees of the above departments will attend the office.

The partially critical departments are C&T, E&IT, Energy, Finance, l&PR, PR&DW, Revenue, SC&ST Development and Works.
Secretaries of the above departments along with key officials and staff shall attend office, as per the notification.

The non-critical departments are Agriculture & FE, Cooperation, Excise, F&ARD, Forest & Environment, Handloom & Textiles, Higher Education, Law, Industries, Labour &ESI, MSME , OLL& Culture , Parliamentary Affairs , Planning & Convergence , Public Enterprises , Rural Development, School & ME, SSEPD , W&CD and MS , Science & Technology , SD&TE , Sports & Youth Services, Steel & Mines , Tourism and Water Resources.

The employees of non-critical departments need not attend the office, it added.