[:en]Chief Minister’s Secretary Ashwini Kumar and Food & Civil Supplies Secretary Mohd Shahid informed that there are 64 vegetable markets at present working in the state.
They said that about 55 lakh litres of liquid milk is sold daily in the state. There are 1,600 Amul parlour alone in the state, including 1,000 in the four major cities of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot.
Giving further details, Secretary Mr. Ashwini Kumar categorically stated that because the Coronavirus get transmitted through socialization of people, therefore as a precautionary measure to prevent the crowding of public places in the entire Gujarat, the state government has decided to close down services of state transport buses and others, except essential services, till March 31, 2020.
Similarly to avoid crowding of people in the offices of various departments of the state government, secretariats, and local governing bodies, the Core Committee has taken a vital decision to control the presence of the government employees in these offices. However, the employees working in essential services like police, health, public welfare, civil supply, collectorates, panchayats, disaster management and others will continue to perform their duties with full strength.
In addition to these, functioning of offices providing services such as gas, electricity and water supply and information and broadcast will continue their duties normally till March 31, 2020. Beside these, the offices of other departments will continue their functioning with minimum required staff strength as per their importance; Mr. Ashwini Kumar said and added that the Core Committee led by Chief Minister had also taken decision to give a mass promotion to the next standard to all the students of standard from 1st to 8th and 9th and 11th.
The secretary to the Chief Minister further stated that the teachers of Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary schools and professors of the colleges will not attend their schools and colleges, respectively, till March 31, 2020. The offices of DPO and DEO will also be remained closed.
As per the guidelines of the Chief Minister, an arrangement to provide proper and correct information to the people about the situation of Coronavirus at regular intervals has also been made through the press briefings. For this, Mrs. Dr. Jayanti Ravi, Principal Secretary (Health), will hold press briefings twice a day – at 10 a.m. in the morning and at 8 p.m. in the evening on daily basis.
Similarly, the press briefings on the situation of law and order and implementation of the lockdown will also be done by the director general of police on everyday at 4 p.m. and about the situation of civil supply essential commodities and other important decisions will be done during the daily press briefings by the secretaries of information and civil supply departments at 2 p.m., Mr. Ashwini Kumar said and added that this Core Committee, consisting of the Deputy Chief Minister, Minister of State for Health, Chief Secretary, and other senior secretaries, will also hold a daily meeting at the residence of Chief Minister at 5 p.m.
He further added that as one can surely protect the self against the Coronavirus through ‘Self Isolation Social Distance.’ For this purpose, the Chief Minister has also appealed to the citizens to observe self-discipline and follow the quarantine protocol.
Today, the Chief Minister had also made talks, through the CM Dashboard system, with the seven persons who have arrived in Gujarat from the foreign countries and observing the home quarantine in four major metropolitans of the state. Mr. Rupani also praised them for their approach to adopt ‘social distancing’ and urged them to follow the ‘quarantine protocol.’
The press briefing was also attended by Mr. Tushar Dholakiya – Executive Managing Director of Civic Supply Nigam, Mr. Ashok Kalariya – Information Director and other senior officials.[:]
