In the light of multiple departments issuing directives on managing the pandemic, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has asked them to refrain from giving orders on their own.
In a note to Ministers and departmental heads on Monday, the Chief Minister said all future decisions on declaring containment zones, restriction on gatherings and movement of people/ vehicles, activities that are to be permitted or banned, and other related issues should come from the Chief Secretary, who heads the State committee of the Disaster Management Cell in the Revenue Department.
“All these orders should be issued with prior permission and consultation of the Chief Minister. The Ministers and heads of department can only provide explanation of the order to the media. They should not issue any statement to the media on imposing any kind of restrictions,” the note said.
He pointed out that while the Centre — since the onset of COVID-19 in March last year — has been issuing guidelines and instructions under the Disaster Management Act 2005, specific standard operating procedures are being issued by departments. Similarly in Karnataka, the Chief Secretary will issue orders.
The note said based on the orders issued by the chief secretary, the Health and Family Welfare Department, Education Department and other departments will issue standard operating procedures.
Zonal officers appointed
In an effort to make decision making faster in Bengaluru, which has been witnessing a spike in the numbers over the last one week, Chief Secretary P. Ravikumar on Monday appointed IAS officers to eight zones in Bengaluru. They will supervise the COVID-19 related efforts, review them and take quick decisions.
The officers are: Manoj Kumar Meena (Bengaluru East), Ujwal Kumar Ghosh (Bengaluru West), Ravikumar Surpur (Bommanahalli), V. Anbu Kumar (Yelahanka), Pankaj Kumar Pandey (Bengaluru South), N. Manjula (Mahadevapura), P.C. Jaffer (Dasarahalli) and R. Vishal (Rajarajeshwari Nagar).
