‘Source of infection yet to be established’

Southern Railway allays apprehension over handling of files, proximity to RGGGH

The Southern Railway has said that the source of COVID-19 infection among its employees is yet to be established.

In a clarification seeking to dispel apprehension that the virus spread due to physical movement of files or proximity of the Zonal Headquarters/Chennai divisional office to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, Southern Railway chief public relations officer B. Guganesan said that the Railways, being an essential service provider, had been involved in train operations, including freight movement, parcel expresses and Shramik expresses, even during the lockdown. The source of infection, in this case, is yet to be established.

The spokesperson was referring to the report, ‘Dozens of railway employees test positive for COVID-19’ published in these columns on June 2. He said that the report gave an impression that some railway employees in the Southern Railway and the Chennai division tested positive for COVID-19 due to handling of files and proximity of the Southern Railway Headquarters to RGGGH, a COVID-19 designated hospital.

He opined that such an impression was probably not substantiated with statistics or official version. Southern Railway had taken utmost care to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among its employees and got the clearance of the Chennai Corporation before opening offices.

Mr. Guganesan said that the Southern Railway was in second position in the implementation of e-office in Indian Railways and as on May 29, 2020, around 11,414 files were created on e-office by the zonal headquarters and Chennai division alone. Only a few files sensitive in nature were handled by a few persons.

“In this case, whether the employees who have tested positive were infected due to the files is only conjecture. Many of those infected do not handle files on a regular basis. Among those who have handled these files and have tested, none have been found positive so far,” he said.

The author of the report, S. Vijay Kumar, writes:

The Railway Board in a letter dated June 1, 2020, sent to all zonal railways, called for correspondence with the Rates Directorate through e-mail only. It laid emphasis on adapting to the new normal in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and said that physical movement of files should be discouraged. The Ministry of Railways, in an advisory to the board’s office on containing the spread of COVID-19, stressed on the maximum use of e-file. “Physical receipt/issue of document be avoided and be discouraged so as to avoid infection through touching of papers which has passed through multiple hands.”