Several Union Ministers and senior officers from the rank of Joint Secretary and above returned to their offices on Monday following direction from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They will work with minimum support staff.
All Ministers who resumed their offices donned home-made face masks. The presence of Ministers in their offices is aimed at sending a strong message that the Government was committed to restart the wheels of economy even during the lockdown.
Officials said that all the Ministers and officers were screened with temperature guns before they were allowed to enter their respective offices. Their vehicles too were sanitised at the gate.
According to officials, the Ministries became fully operational while following standard operating procedures (SoPs) for maintaining social distancing in offices. The Ministers on Monday took stock of the situation under their Ministries and were preparing business continuity plan to minimise the economic impact of the lockdown.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar have also resumed working at their Ministries on Monday.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister of State for PMO Jitendra Singh, Railways and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Minister of State for Youth Affairs Kiren Rijiju, Culture and Tourism Minister Prahlad Patel, Animal Husbandry Minister Giriraj Singh, Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, were some of the early office-goers on Monday, along with other senior officials.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar was seen sporting a face mask. He held a meeting at the Shastri Bhawan.
Sharing a picture of her working from office, Sitharaman said: “Back to working in North Block office with a home-made mask this morning.” She was wearing a home-made mask.
Agriculture Minister Narender Singh Tomar held a meeting with Ministry officials at his office on harvest operations across the country and other farmer-related issues. Ministers of State Purshottam Rupala and Kailash Chaudhary, Secretary Sanjay Agarwal and other senior Ministry officials also attended the meeting which discussed the impending harvest of rabi crops in many States and the procurement process were discussed.
“Only senior officials and the minimum required staff will be coming to the office today onwards. We’ll follow all guidelines regarding Covid-19,” Rijiju told mediapersons.
“I was working most of the time from home during the lockdown. Today I returned to my office at Shastri Bhavan after a week. It feels good to be back. The Modi Government is in full action on all fronts now,” Coal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said.
The Ministers were working from home since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a three-week nationwide lockdown from March 24 midnight due to coronavirus scare.
There were reports that some of the Ministers and secretaries were not checked for their temperatures. On the other hand, some of support staff of Ministers and their officials faced struggle to reach office due to lack of public transport. The staff belonging to class 2, 3 and 4 are working on a rotational basis and one-third of them were also present in the Ministries.
Besides the Ministers, all officers of the Joint-Secretary level and above have been asked to be present in the Ministries along with one-third of the essential staff from Monday. The Ministers have been asked to carry out their duties with just 50 per cent of their staff available.