Government preparing to return to office but with caveats

NEW DELHI: The central government is preparing to return to ‘work from office’ from Monday but with several caveats. All central government offices have been told to discourage travel, physical meetings and visitors. However, the biggest challenge is to get personnel to offices as public transport is still not available.

With the Delhi government deciding to be in full lockdown mode in the hotspot areas, the central government ministries are considering allowing personnel to work from home.

All secretaries to various ministries have been advised to exercise their judgement and meet a minimum number of Group Cemployees, EThas learnt. The home ministry guidelines of April 15 had capped Group C attendance at 33%.


Although the government has advised all deputy secretary level officers and above to maintain 100% attendance across all offices, the issue is that many of them don’t have a vehicle of their own.

Several ministries are now working on pick-anddrop facilities for them through official vehicles. Since physical distancing is to be maintained, carpooling is out of the question and not more than two passengers per car are likely to be permitted, a senior official said.

Several employees have expressed their inability to attend office due to their age or pre-existing medical conditions or because they are caregivers to vulnerable persons, officials in various ministries told ET.

Meanwhile, thermal scanners and sanitisers at the entry gate will be the new normal at every government building. Those with flu-like symptoms will be simply asked to get themselves treated first. It has been advised that meetings should mostly be done through videoconferencing only.