To strengthen the manpower available in various health institutions and medical colleges in Himachal Pradesh to tackle the emergent situation which has arisen due to spread of COVID-19, the State Government on Wednesday deferred and extended the date of superannuation of all Medical Officers, faculty members and paramedical staff of all categories working in the health and family welfare and medical education research who are due to retire on 31 March, 30 April and 31 May, 2020 up to 30 June, 2020.
Additional Chief Secretary, Health passed an order according to which the Medical Officers and paramedical staff who have retired upon attaining the age of superannuation between 31 December, 2017 to 29 February, 2020 would also be given re-employment on the last post held with effect from 1 April, 2020 till further orders subject to written consent, availability and fitness.
They will report to their duties in the offices of the Chief Medical Officer concerned of the district or Principal of the medical college, who has been authorised to issue re-employment orders on need basis and further deploy them in health institutions in his or her jurisdiction.
STATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REVIEWS ARRANGEMENTS for COVID-19
The 10th meeting of the State Executive Committee (SEC) constituted under Section 20 of the Disaster Management Act was organized under the chairpersonship of Chief Secretary Anil Kumar Khachi to review the preparedness measures for COVID-19.
After detailed deliberations, it was decided that all directions and guidelines issued by the Government of India will be adopted by the State in totality. All departments and districts will follow the same and the implementation of these will be reviewed and monitored on a regular basis.
Himachal Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (HPSDMA) in the year 2011 had notified 17 departments which would perform Emergency Support Functions in the face of disasters to ensure a timely and well coordinated response. It was decided the considering the gravity of the current situation it was decided that more roles and responsibilities need to be notified to manage the current crisis situation.
Thirdly, it was decided that the Disaster Management Cell, Department of Revenue-Disaster Management and the Department of Health need to constitute a ‘COVID-19 Management Strategy’ for the state. The meeting concluded with the resolve for opearationalizing the state and district Emergency Operations Centres (EOCs) as a focal point for coordination and compilation of reports and resources for COVID-19.
Additional Chief Secretaries R. D. Dhiman and Manoj Kumar, Principal Secretary Jagdish Chander and Onkar Chand Sharma, Director-General of Police SR Mardi and Director-cum-Special Secretary-Revenue-DM D.C. Rana) were present for this meeting.
