State forms 7-member Apex Task Force to oversee activities of Covid Coordinators and Observers.

MP | 23 April 21 | Kolkata: The state government has set up a seven-member Apex Task Force, led by Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, to oversee activities of Covid Coordinators and Observers. 

The step has been taken to ensure a seamless health service when the number of Covid cases has sought up to more than 12,000 per day. 

The Committee comprising the Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) of the Home and Hill Affairs department, ACS Panchayats and Rural Development department, Director General of Police, Principal Secretary of the Finance department, Commissioner of the Kolkata Police and Secretary of the state Health department will "work to over-arch the activities of the Covid coordinators and Observers along with task forces, formed around those coordinators". 

The state Personnel and Administrative Reforms department has also issued an order containing names of the senior IAS officers, who will act as coordinators for different sectors. IAS officer Choten Lama and Y Ratnakar Rao are the coordinators for vaccination in the entire state. IAS officer Sanjay Bansal along with Dhaval Jain, Ravi Ranjan, Ezaz Ahmed will look after the telemedicine facility. JP Meena will look after the testing. 

Besides being the in-charge of the telemedicine facility, Sanjay Bansal will also look after the areas including ambulance service, admission facilities in hospitals in the KMA area and bed augmentation in private hospitals. Saumitra Mohan is looking after the augmentation of beds in state-run and state requisitioned hospitals. Binod Kumar, P Ulganathan and Mahua Banerjee are taking care of Satellite Centres, Safe Homes and infrastructures. Manoj Pant and Manish Jain are looking after the strategies, policies, procurement and arrangement for oxygen. Santanu Basu and Rajanvir Singh Kapur are looking after communication and media. 

At the same time, a working group headed by the ACS Home HK Dwivedi has also been set up to assist the Apex Task Force. The seven-member group comprises Principal Secretary of the Disaster Management Department Dushyant Nariala, Food Secretary Parwez A Siddiqui, Commissioner of Howrah Municipal Corporation Abhishek Tiwary, Managing Director of Paschimbanga Agri-Marketing Corporation Dhaval Jain, Director of Consumer Goods, Foods and Supplies Sana Akhtar and Officer on Special Duty at WBIDC Rajesh Rathore. 

The Home Secretary on Friday also held a 45-minute long meeting with District Magistrates and other senior officers of all districts directing them to send regular updates on the stock and requirement of oxygen. They have also been directed to increase the number of beds and the ICUs in every district. The regular update has to be sent through CMOHs.

(http://www.millenniumpost.in/kolkata/state-forms-7-member-apex-task-force-438128)