Deputy Commissioner (DC), Leh/Chief Executive Officer (CEO), LAHDC Leh, Shrikant Balasaheb Suse today convened a meeting with concerned district officials to discuss Covid surveillance to contain the spread of coronavirus with lots of migrant labourers and tourists expected to arrive in Leh this year.
The meeting was attended by Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), Leh; Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Leh; Medical Superintendent, SNM Hospital, Leh; District Surveillance Officer, Leh; Assistant Labour Commissioner, Leh; State Surveillance Officer, IDSP, Leh, and representatives from different labour agencies from Leh district.
CMO Leh Dr Motup apprised DC Balasaheb Suse about the beginning of the arrival of labourers in Leh, and the problems faced by the Health Department in taking swab samples of passengers at the airport due to the shortage of data entry operators.
Assistant Labour Commissioner, Leh, Ghulam Nabi Tak shared the challenges faced by the Labour Department in registering the labourers at the airport, and keeping a tab on the movement of labourers working in different villages of Ladakh. He also requested DC Leh to authorise Ladakh Police to check the registration card of the labourers.
ADC Leh, Sonam Chosjor informed the officials that the Administration would authorise checkpoints at different places to permit only labourers with proper registration cards issued by the labour agencies to move. DC Leh also directed to form village surveillance teams, comprising sarpanch and nambardars, to allow labourers with proper registration cards to work in the village.
During the meeting, charging a nominal fee from the labourers for their registration was also discussed. It was also decided during the meeting to make RT PCR mandatory for tourists on arrival in Leh. Similarly, the officials agreed that the labourers would be registered at the labour office after conducting the Covid test. DC Leh also directed the Labour Department and labour agencies to register labourers with stamps from the health officials on their boarding passes.
People would be allowed to engage only those labourers with registration cards issued from the labour department. DC Leh also directed ADC Leh to provide four additional data entry operations to increase Covid tests at the airport.
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