TANSA: Allow limited staff at Secretariat to ensure safety

“It will take at least two months for the offices at Secretariat and in other parts of Chennai to resume their normal functioning, provided the coronavirus infection reduces in Chennai. There is acute space congestion to follow social distancing,” said Peter Anthonysamy, president, Tamil Nadu Secretariat Association (TANSA) to DT Next. 

Thanking Chief Minister MK Stalin for exempting pregnant employees and government staff with comorbid conditions from coming to the Secretariat during the lockdown, the association also demanded distribution of kabasura kudineer, arsenic album and other traditional preventive medicines for the government staff. 

More than a dozen Secretariat staff have succumbed and more than 500 employees have been exposed to the virus. For example, the municipal administration and rural development together have 103 sections with hundreds of staffs. How can it be possible to adhere to social distancing? This strength should be reduced during the pandemic and the congestion has to be eased, the TANSA office-bearer said. 

Barring departments like CM office, CM cell, revenue, public, Chief Secretary office, finance - other departments should pass circulars reducing staff strength, he added. 

Meanwhile, a senior official said that the Secretariat functioned with full strength during the elections when there was no major scheme or projects. Now again, during the coronavirus peak, they failed to understand that they were breeding COVID cases at Fort St George. In the past two months, half a dozen IAS and senior officers have contracted the infection, the official said hinting that there was a need to decongest the staff and visitors at Secretariat.