Vijayawada: Government employees have urged the Andhra Pradesh state government to allow either 50 per cent of them to attend to offices or permit them to work from home, in the wake of several of them getting infected with Covid-19.
Even though the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has been affecting thousands of people and causing the death of several people every day, no exception was given to the employees working in both the government and private sectors from attending the offices.
In AP Secretariat, several employees have been infected with Covid-19 and so far five of them breathed their last. In the AP State FiberNet Limited office, nearly eight employees have been infected with the virus and a 29 years old employee died due to the virus.
“We are optimistic that the state government will take a decision positively on their appeal to allow them either to work from home or to allow only 50 per cent of staff to report to work,” said AP Secretariat Employees Association state president K. Venkata Rami Reddy.
At Andhra Pradesh Infrastructure Corporation’s office, several employees have been infected and nearly 50 per cent of them have been on leave to take treatment. In the Directorate of Animal Husbandry, nearly 15 employees have been infected while one died of the virus. In APSRTC’s office, several employees, including some senior officials, have been infected with the virus.
Since the work from home option is not feasible in the registration department as they have to physically present in their offices for verification of documents before registering them, the employees have urged the government to allow the ‘slot booking system.’ Under this system, those who intend to register their properties will be given a specific time to visit the office and complete their work in a few minutes and go away before another party is permitted to enter the office. In this model, there will be no rush of people which will protect the employees and stop the registration offices from becoming the Covid hubs.
AP Revenue Services Association state president Bopparaju Venkateswarlu said, “We appeal to the state government to allow them to work from home based on viability so that it will also help curb the spread of the virus.”
