Gehlot orders closure of govt offices, bars & clubs

Jaipur, March 19 (SocialNews.XYZ) Barring few departments linked with essential services, all government and semi-government departments, local self-governance institutions, corporations and boards, spas, clubs, bars in Rajasthan have been ordered to stay closed till further orders.

This was ordered by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, here on Thursday, after reviewing the coronavirus situation in the state.

Gehlot said suitable arrangements be made by taking lessons from various countries against coronavirus. Next two weeks were especially important with regard to the Covid-19 spread and every person had to be the responsible citizen, he said.

"The shutdown doesn't mean holiday/leave. If required the personnel will have to come to office. There will be no permission to go on leave and leave the headquarters during this period, except for medical reasons and important family circumstanceS," he said.

There would be no shutdown in the medical and health, medical education, Ayurveda, energy and other significant departments. In the remaining departments, 50 per cent employees will come to work and the rest will 'work from home' online.

"Advisory should be issued to the private factory owners to provide the facility of 'work from home' to their workers and allow leave with pay," he said.

The Chief Minister said MGRENGS labourers should be stopped from coming to the workplace will March 31 and they should be paid the honorarium as per rule.

He warned of tough action against persons identified with Covid-19 symptoms if they didn't follow the directions of home isolation. Action would be taken under section 188 of Indian Penal Code, he added.

Additional Chief Secretary (Medical and Health) Rohit Kumar Singh said 1,100 people were in home isolation in the stayte. Of this, 265 were in Jaipur, he added.

Section 144 has been imposed to stop gathering of crowd in the state.

Source: IANS