By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 17 Apr: Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh held a meeting with District Magistrates, Superintendents of Police and Chief Medical Officers of all districts through video conferencing at the Secretariat today. The Chief Secretary directed the District Magistrates not to purchase PPE kits at the district level. He asked them to raise their demand for PPE kits through the Directorate of Health and Medicine as per their requirement. The Health Directorate would then send the state’s requirements to the Government of India which would provide high quality PPE kits to the states. The Chief Secretary said that tests of Covid-19 ought to be conducted strictly in accordance with the guidelines of ICMR, and that the Arogya Setu app be installed in the phones of all Corona positive patients. He also asked the DMs to be prepared to begin the permissible works that would be permitted after 20 April as per the guidelines of the Government of India and while doing so, the social distancing and sanitisation protocols ought to be followed strictly.
Additional Chief Secretary Om Prakash said that priority based construction works could be started from 20 April onwards in the state. For this priority ought to be given to such works which were nearing their completion before the lockdown.
Director General of Police Anil Raturi said that the police force and the district administration ought to be in touch with the labourers from other states and visit the sites they had been kept in. This was important as there were reports of confusion prevailing among them that train and bus services would start from 20 April onwards. They also ought to be told that some construction and agriculture work would be opened up in the state from 20 April onwards.
Principal Secretary Industry Manisha Panwar informed that a single window system application portal had been started for industry related approvals. But in remote areas where there was a problem of network connectivity, applications could also be submitted offline.
Secretary Agriculture R Meenakshi Sundaram said that all arrangements be made for the sowing of the Kharif crop. He said that there was adequate availability of seeds, pesticides and other agriculture inputs in the state. Animal feed was also available in sufficient quantities. Necessary arrangements be made for setting up procurement centres for crops. Secretary Food Supply Sushil Kumar said that procurement in procurement centres had to be done through e-procurement portal. In this, the farmer would be registered and informed through SMS that on which day they had to come with their produce at the procurement centres.
Secretaries Amit Negi, and Nitesh Jha, Director General of Police Law and Order Ashok Kumar and Additional Chief Executive Officer Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority Riddhim Aggarwal were also present on the occasion.
