The bureaucracy has been hit hard by the coronavirus as more than 100 senior babus, including IAS, IPS IRS and railways officers, have lost their lives to Covid.
The news of the death of senior bureaucrats, like Bihar Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Singh and three of his 1985 batchmates — former CBI director Ranjit Sinha, former Secretary Department of Land Resources Ruolkhumlien Buhril, and serving Director Dept of Panchayat Raj in Bihar Vijay Ranjan and many more — due to Covid during the second wave of pandemic has rattled the Indian bureaucracy.
President of Uttar Pradesh IAS Association Deepak Trivedi too lost the battle to Covid as did Bihar Additional Secretary Health RS Chowdhury and all within a week. Trivedi was posted as chairman Board of Revenue, UP Government.
“We have lost batchmates in as many days. It’s a sad feeling and we are devastated yet ready to fight the pandemic with the same zeal to help our country come out of this problem,” said a top IAS officer of 1985 batch. Besides Arun, Trivedi, Sanjeev Gupta of the same batch from Gujarat cadre succumbed to Covid last week.
Bihar Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Singh is the third IAS officer who died of Covid complications in the State, after Chowdhury and Ranjan.
Apart from these three serving officers, two retired officers, Abhimanyu Singh and Dr Hriday Kant Sinha passed away last month. IAS officers of undivided Bihar cadre, AC Ranjan and MC Subarno, who retired from Jharkhand cadre, too succumbed to the Covid tsunami. Two servicing IRS officers — Rajneesh Arvind and DK Jha — succumbed to the virus on Sunday.
Padam Shri IAS AM Gokhale, who pioneered the setting up Village Development Board in Nagaland, too fell to the deadly virus.
Railway officer KK Srivastawa, an IRTS of 1975 batch, Chander Shekhar and IRS Custom of 1996 batch, young railway officer of 2006 batch Abhishek Johri, ex-chief of SSB Arun Chaudhary, Dr Mahesh Nayak, DIG Armed Units, Vadodara, IPS, are others in bureaucracy who died due to complications related to Covid.
Virtual tributes meet are being organised on a regular basis at the untimely demise of officers.
Condoling the untimely demise of several officers, secretary of IAS Officers Association, Bihar, Dipak Kumar Singh announced his support to everyone in this crisis period. “Retired and serving officers may contact the association, for any support,” said Singh.
According to media reports and sources, in the recent past an estimated two dozen top bureaucrats in the Government of India including secretaries, additional secretaries and joint secretaries across Central Government Ministries, including the Health Ministry, have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Some top officers who tested positive include Guruprasad Mahapatra, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade; R Subrahmanyam, Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment; Anil Kumar Jha, Secretary, Tribal Affairs; Usha Sharma, Secretary, Youth Affairs; Bharat Lal, Additional Secretary, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation among others.
In Uttar Pradesh, 12 IAS officers reportedly tested positive early last week, prompting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to get himself into isolation.
The Delhi Government last week had appointed 10 IAS officers as nodal officers for Government-run Covid-19 hospitals in the national Capital. “The officers will be overall in charge of the Covid-19 hospital assigned to them and will exercise general superintendence, directions and control over the functioning of the hospital,” read the departmental order.
Neighbouring Haryana, the Government has deputed 12 IAS officers to review and monitor preparedness on Covid-19 management. Similarly, Odisha Government had deputed 21 senior IAS officers as observers for Covid management.
