By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR/BHADRAK/BALASORE: With COVID-19 Positive cases reached at 83 and situations in Bhadrak, Balasore and Jajpur continued to remain tense following reports of large scale entries from Bengal to these 3 districts, the Odisha Government deputed 3 senior IAS officers to monitor the COVID-19 situation.
SK Lohani, Principal Secretary, Excise and Commissioner GST has been given the charge of : Bhadrak. Lohani, a competent IAS officer, was earlier part of a 6-members IAS teams formed by the Naveen Patnaik led Government to oversee the situation in three containment zones in State Cpaital of Bhubaneswar. The BMC has withdrawn the containment zones in State Capital.
Dr. Pramod Kumar Meherda, Secretary to Governor, has been given the baton of Jajpur. Dr Mehrda, who himself a medical professional and earlier served as State Health and Family Welfare, will certainly brings things under control in Jajpur, sources said.
SK Vashishth, who has been serving as Special Secretary, Agriculture & FE since his return from New Delhi following completion of central deputation, will man Balasore. Lohani and Vashishth may face tough time with Bhadrak and Balasore under firing zone. “So far, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases stands at 11 in Bhadrak district, which will be major challenge for Lohani to handle but with the senior IAS officer earlier acted as a crisis manger in Bhubaneswar, things will certainly change in next few days,” sources said in Bhadrak
Meanwhile, in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus in Odisha, Collectors of Khurda and Bhadrak has opted certain measures.As per available reports, nearly 20,000 people from Khurda who currently are in other states have to register themselves online with State government before coming back to the district. This was informed by Khurda District Collector Sitanshu Rout.On the other hand, Bhadrak District Collector Gyana Das has urged the populace of the district to provide information about persons who returned from other states recently.
The move was adopted by Das after the latest cases detected in Bhadrak proved to be due to returnees from other States.Amid a rise in coronavirus positive cases in Odisha and a possible link to West Bengal, the state government has now stepped up vigil and is not allowing entry of anyone from the neighbouring state.
Meanwhile, Odisha is expecting 5 lakh people to return to state from outside states after COVID19 lockdown.To ensure mandatory registration of the returnees and for effective management of Covid-19, sarpanchs will be given the powers of a collector and the law has been changed accordingly.
Bhadrak district Collector Gyana Das urged everyone to share information of people with recent travel history to other states.He requested the locals to report to respective Sarpanch and BDO as well as the district control room about people, who have recently come from other states to Bhadrak.
Taking to Twitter, Das said, “We request all to share information on people, who have come recently from other states to Bhadrak District to local Sarpanch and BDO as well as to District Control Room. The phone numbers of District Control Room are — 06784-251881/08763004011.”
In a series of tweets, he informed that the district administration has allowed opening of shops of educational books from 6.00 am to 1.00 pm everyday except in Basudevpur and Bhandaripokhari blocks, the containment zones where eight persons have tested positive for COVID-19.
Also, the mobile charges centres in the district (except containment zones) have been allowed to be functional from 6.00 am to 1.00 pm maintaining social distancing. However, online recharge may be preferred.
Moreover, the district authorities have also allowed functioning of Dhabas of National Highway from Ranital to Akhuapada for takeaways only. The Dhaba owners have been asked to provide toilet facilities maintaining hygiene and social distancing to avoid infection.
Several Gram Panchayats (GPs) under Basudevpur and Bhandaripokhari Blocks in the district have been declared containment zones after eight persons with travel history to Kolkata were tested COVID-19 positive. As part of preventive measures, the restrictions have been imposed in those panchayats. The authorities also sealed many areas under two blocks to contain the spread of deadly virus.
