A five-member team of Central government officials on Saturday began a five-day visit to Chennai to take stock of the situation, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Led by Additional Secretary of the National Disaster Management Authority, V. Thiruppugazh, the team had a preliminary meeting with Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam at the Secretariat, after which it went to the Ripon Buildings, the headquarters of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), where it had a discussion with senior officials of the State government.
A senior official of the State government said that the mandate given to the team was to visit Chennai and not any other district.
The team included Anita Khokar, professor of community medicine at the Vardman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi; Surya Prakash, professor, National Institute of Disaster Management; Lokender Singh, chief general manager of the Food Corporation of India and V. Vijayan of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Among those present were Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue Administration & Disaster Management) Atulya Misra; Principal Secretary/Commissioner of Revenue Administration J. Radhakrishnan; Chennai Police Commissioner A.K. Viswanathan; nodal officers and Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority Member Secretary and Commissioner of Municipal Administration, D. Karthikeyan and K. Baskaran, and Commissioner of Chennai Corporation G. Prakash.
Later, the team went to the Communicable Diseases Hospital, Tondiarpet. The members interacted with select migrant workers at Kannappar Thidal in Periamet. The team also visited a community hall in Alwarpet and met residents of containment zones such as Royapuram, Tondiarpet, Mannady and Egmore.
Another official said that during the interaction with migrant workers, the team wanted to ascertain from them whether they wanted to go back to their places of work or home, in the event of lifting the lockdown after May 3. While the team was appreciative of the work being done by the authorities, the team was of the view that sections of city residents, who were otherwise aware of the serious nature of COVID-19, might have to enhance their “behavioural pattern” in adherence to norms of physical distancing.
The official added that in the next four days, the team would visit all three government medical colleges in the city, especially laboratories and isolation wards, the Omandurar Multi-Speciality Hospital and a temporary centre of isolation wards in Nandambakkam, among other things.
In the meantime, the Chief Minister announced the release of ₹1,000 each to 21,770 workers of 1,778 matchbox units, who have registered themselves under the ESI scheme.
