Bhubaneswar: Amid the rapid rise in Covid cases, all State Government offices function with 50 per cent of staff from January 7 to January 31.
The General Administration & Public Grievance Department has issued an order in this regard on Thursday.
“It has been decided that all the Departments of the State Government and Subordinate offices in the State shall function with 50% strength of employees (officers of the rank of Under Secretary and above who shall attend office daily) during January 7 to 31, 2022,” read the order.
The Departments and Head of offices may decide the manner of selection of employees who will attend office.
However, the essential offices and services such as SRC and OSDMA offices, Police, Fire Services, Health Services, Municipal services etc. Office of the State Election Commissioner and all offices connected with the conduct of elections to the three tier Panchayat bodies have been exempted from this order and can function in full strength.
Besides, offices of all recruiting institutions like Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC), Odisha Staff Selection Commission (OSSC), Odisha Subordinate Staff Selection Commission will function at 75 per cent of their strength of employees.
However, the officers of the rank of Under Secretary and above will attend office daily during the period.
The Government has asked the Departments to strictly follow all precautionary measures to prevent spread of COVID infection.
In case of detection of any COVID case among the office employees, the concerned office will follow the protocol issued by the Government in July, 2020.
It may be ensured that the officers / staff, who are not assigned duty on roster, will have to work from home with VPN provided to them for attending the regular & pending works.
They must be available on telephone at all times to attend office work of urgent nature, at short notice, it said.
The employees with disability and pregnant women employees are exempted from attending office and work from home. However, no employee can leave the headquarters without prior permission of the authority.