Deputy Commissioner-Srinagar Dr. Shahid Iqbal Chowdhary has directed Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) to obtain a certificate that they had downloaded the Arogya Setu mobile application before the release of salary to all government employees, with the effect that all government employees working under his administrative control have installed the app on their mobile phones.
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“It is impressed upon all the district and sectoral officers of Srinagar to ensure that all the officers working in their respective department shall download the Arogya Setu App on their mobile phones immediately and get themselves registered accordingly,” reads the order from the Deputy Commissioner.
The order further says “for the safety of the government officers, downloading of Arogya [Seth app], has been made mandatory” and that it is “aimed to break the chain of transmission of novel coronavirus”.
Data security
The application recently came under criticism for reasons of data security. Several employees have raised a red flag over being forced to download the application.
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“The curve is already flattening in Srinagar. The detection of COVID-19 cases is showing a downward trend because of the efforts of the disaster management team. Forcing employees to download the app is a violation of privacy rights. There are genuine fears that the application can access mobile data too,” one senior employee said, on condition of anonymity.
Red zone mapping
J&K Chief Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam had on April 14 issued guidelines for all red zones in the Union Territory and called for their mapping, including on the size of habitations, geographic distribution of COVID-19 cases, proximity to other habitations, accessibility, geographical barriers and mobility He also called for “intelligent demarcation of the boundaries of red zones”.
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“There will be a 100% survey and screening of all persons in the red zone. The results of survey shall be integrated with ‘Aarogya Setu’ as much as possible. A detailed health screening of the contacts and the survey results would be geo-mapped,” the order read.
The Chenab Valley’s Kishtwar already has 20,272 Arogya Setu app users covering 45,992 families, or a population of 2,11,652 out of the 2,30,696 residents of the district.
