Ministers, officials resume office in Shastri Bhawan amid coronavirus outbreak

On the 20th day of the lockdown, Union ministers and senior officials resumed working from offices on Monday at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the vehicles entering Shastri Bhawan, which houses offices of over10 ministries, were first sanitized and then allowed to enter. The ministries became fully operational while following standard operating procedures (SoPs) for maintaining social distancing in offices.

On the first day of resuming their offices, several ministers including Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, Arjun Munda, Giriraj Singh, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi, Ram Vilas Paswan held discussions related to public policies of their ministries during the coronavirus outbreak.

The ministers took stock of the situation, evaluated the steps taken to control the spread of coronavirus and were preparing business continuity plan to minimize the economic impact of the lockdown.

During the meetings, all departments were asked to prepare a list of officers and employees, so that they could be called to work in rotation.

Meanwhile, preparations are being done by the ministries to call the other officials and employees from April 15.