People thronged the markets and other places on Monday, the first day of lockdown stage V termed Unlock 1 in Uttarakhand even as three members of State Cabinet including Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and some bureaucrats went into self imposed quarantine. After shocking disclosure of senior Cabinet Minister and spiritual guru Satpal Maharaj, his family members and staff being found positive for Covid-19 on Sunday, fear gripped the Government circles in Uttarakhand.
The fact that the infected minister had attended the cabinet meeting on Friday in which CM Rawat and cabinet ministers Harak Singh Rawat, Subodh Uniyal and Madan Kaushik were present sent the system into a tizzy. The chief secretary Utpal Kumar Singh was also present in the cabinet meeting in which some other senior bureaucrats were summoned.
As a precautionary measure, the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and his cabinet colleagues, Harak Singh Rawat, Madan Kaushik and Subodh Uniyal went into a self imposed home quarantine. The CM is also learnt to have cancelled all his engagements for next few days.
The Government spokesman and senior Cabinet Minister Madan Kaushik said on Monday that the CM and three cabinet ministers who were in the cabinet meeting decided to go under self imposed home quarantine after the sample of cabinet minister Satpal Maharaj was found positive for Covid-19. He added that the CM and ministers would follow the decision of district administration on the subject.
Meanwhile many bureaucrats including the chief secretary Utpal Kumar Singh didn’t attended their offices on Monday which gave rise to speculation that they too have gone into a self imposed home quarantine.
Later in the day, the secretary of medical health and family welfare, Amit Singh Negi said that the government officers present in the cabinet meeting of Friday are waiting for the decision of the administration on the issue of quarantine. He said that only those officers who would be classified under the high risk category which means that those who have came into close contact of minister, would be sent into home quarantine while those who are put into low risk category would be free to work in a normal manner.
Negi said that the district magistrate (DM) of Dehradun would decide on the high risk and low risk categories of the officers and the ministers based on the guidelines of the government of India. The DM of Dehradun, Ashish Srivastava told the media persons on Monday afternoon that he has sought the report on the issue from the departments concerned and state administration.
On Monday, the conference room where the meeting of the state cabinet was held on Friday was sanitised and the entry was kept restricted. The positive report of minister Satpal Maharaj has also instilled fear among the employees of the state secretariat. The association of secretariat employees demanded that the secretariat should be closed for few days and the employees should be allowed to work from home in order to prevent them from being infected.