With Covid-19 spreading across administrative circles in Punjab, the state government has stopped all public dealing in the Punjab Secretariat with immediate effect.
The order was issued in the wake of many officers testing positive, who had regularly been visiting the secretariat and who were involved in dealing with the public. So far, 11 PCS officers as well as an SSP have tested positive in the last two days.
The latest addition to the list is IAS officer Vipul Ujjwal, Director, Rural Development department. In what has rung alarm bells, Vipul was present in a meeting of the department on Thursday which was attended by Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa. Bajwa and other officers who attended the meeting have been quarantined and are being tested for COVID-19.
The Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had yesterday cautioned officials and sought SOPs from Chief Secretary Vinni Mahajan for how officials are meet with people from other departments, stating that the state was already working with a critically low manpower. The state has already crossed the 7,000-mark in positive cases and registered 183 deaths.
Meanwhile, given the surge in COVID-19 spread, the Punjab government has decided to cancel the pending examinations which were to be conducted by Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) after July 15. School education minister Mr. Vijay Inder Singla told THE WEEK that it was not feasible to carry out any offline examination amidst the current COVID crisis.
“Now, the result will be declared on the basis of best performing subjects as examinations of some subjects have already been taken by the PSEB before the outbreak of coronavirus," said Singla. He added that it was also need of the hour to declare results to enable the students to timely choose their desired courses in higher education.
Meanwhile, the state has also expressed inability to comply with centre's orders to compulsorily conduct examinations for terminal classes and semesters of undergraduate and postgraduate courses by 30th September. Punjab higher education minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa has written to the HRD Ministry, asking them to reconsider the guidelines.
“In public interest, the state should be exempted from compulsion as compliance is impossible. Conducting online examinations for such a large number of students, majority of whom reside in remote rural areas without access to computers and internet, is not possible. Conducting physical examination will involve huge logistical and operational challenges considering the fact that social distancing and other COVID protocols cannot be maintained in case of hostel accommodation. At many places, the college and universities buildings and hostels have been taken over by the district administration for COVID management purposes such as for temporary medical camp, covid care hospital, quarantine centres. Since public transport is almost non-existent due to COVID effect, mobility of students to their college will be severely affected,” read the letter.
