Entry of media persons in Secretariat allowed again By Our Staff Reporter

By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 21 Jan: The government has again allowed entry of media persons and others in the Secretariat. It may be recalled that the entry of all outsiders including media persons had been barred at the State Secretariat on Subhash Road in view of the Corona pandemic. Though the entry of media persons and all outsiders had been banned after the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, special orders had been issued in this regard in September last year. For sometime after the outbreak of the pandemic, the Secretariat itself had remained closed, even for the staff. Later, when the Secretariat opened, entry was restricted to a certain number of officials for some months. Though the Secretariat later started functioning normally, orders were issued in September last barring entry of all the outsiders including media persons.
Even the regular pass holders were not being allowed entry except the dignitaries, designated officers from various government departments and those called for meetings.
However, now, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has granted permission for allowing entry of outsiders coming to the Secretariat for government or personal work and the media persons for news coverage. An order in this regard was today issued under the signature of Additional Chief Secretary Radha Raturi in view of the decrease in the number of fresh Covid cases every day. As per the new orders issued by Raturi, the earlier orders barring the entry of media persons and other outsiders stand repealed. Outsiders and media persons coming to the Secretariat for government or personal work would now be allowed entry as was the case in the past though with certain restrictions. Masks or face covers would have to be compulsorily used by visitors coming to the Secretariat and they would not be allowed to enter the Secretariat premises without the masks.
As per the new orders, it would be the responsibility of the Chief Security Officer to instruct the security personnel to make it clear to visitors they would be permitted to meet only the officer concerned who had issued the admit card and would not be allowed to meet other officers or officials and enter other offices within the Secretariat in order to not disturb its functioning.
All those being allowed to enter the Secretariat would be permitted to stay for a maximum period of two hours from the time of issuance of the pass.