Lockdown: Nitish Kumar asks district magistrates to reopen all public service centres across Bihar

PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday asked all district magistrates (DMs) to re-open public service centres in their districts while maintaining the norms of social distancing.
The counters of the public service centres, set up under the state government’s Right to Public Service (RTPS) Act, were closed since March 23 after Bihar government announced lockdown in all major cities and towns of the state to check spread of Covid-19.
Holding a review meeting, through video-conferencing, with all departmental heads, divisional commissioners, zonal heads of police, DMs and superintendents of police (SPs), CM further asked the DMs not to keep new arriving migrant people with the old already-staying inmates at the quarantine centres to check spread of the deadly virus.
“New people arriving at the quarantine centres should not be kept with old inmates. There should be separate arrangement for new peoples,” he told all DMs and asked to ensure this instruction at all the quarantine centres.
While taking feedbacks from the DMs and SPs, the CM said the state’s migrant workers faced a lot of problems during the lockdown outside Bihar, because majority of private companies/ employers in other states didn’t take care of their day-to-day requirements.
“Now, it is our duty to take care of returned migrant workers. My wish is that all returned people get opportunity of employment in the home state. No one should go outside the state due to certain compulsion. During my recent interaction with the people staying at the quarantine centres, the returned workers expressed their views that they want to stay in the home state and work here,” Nitish told the officials at the meeting.
He asked the agriculture department to take necessary steps as per the standard operating procedure (SOP) to deal with the chances of locust attack.
CM further said, the state government has constituted a task force headed by development commissioner, for creation of maximum number of employment for the returned migrant workers. “All DMs should take necessary step to provide employment to the returned people as per the outcome of skill-mapping,” he said.
Reviewing the food-grain distribution, Nitish further asked the DMs to expedite the work of printing of approved ration cards and their timely distribution among the beneficiaries. The CM asked the food and consumer protection department’s secretary to talk to all DMs and get feedback about the availability and distribution of food-grains in each district so that beneficiaries do not face any difficulty.
“I believe only in doing work of public. Whatever work is in the interest of people, we do them with full dedication and honesty,” CM said.