 "Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders during an all-party meeting ahead of the Budget session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Sunday | Photo: PTI")
Of the eleven groups of secretary-led officers tasked with responding to the Covid-19 outbreak, the group to manage the “availability of hospitals, isolation and quarantine facilities, disease surveillance ….” is headed by C K Mishra, secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, instead of Priti Sudan, the secretary of health and family welfare.
“The appointment is not surprising because Sudan as the officer in charge of the ministry, has to provide resources to the thousands of hospitals and manage new emergencies daily,” says a former secretary level officer. “She is firefighting,” he adds. Instead Mishra who has held charge
