GHAZIABAD: While the factory owners in the district have been directed Thursday to conduct daily surveys of staff for influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) symptoms and submit reports to the industry department for testing, department sources have termed this process cumbersome. They have suggested that the focus should be Covid testing camps at industrial units.
The sources pointed out that there are almost 5.5 lakh workers engaged in over 27,000 factories, and screening them daily will be an uphill task.
The direction came from the state-appointed nodal officer Senthil Pandian C during the Covid review meeting. Virendra Kumar, deputy commissioner, DIC, said, “We have asked the industrial units to give us the names of staff who were found to be exhibiting symptoms of coronavirus infection at their respective Covid helpdesks.” From the individual helpdesks, the details of symptomatic workers is to be passed on to the industry department who would inform the integrated covid care centre in the district for tracing and testing.
Kumar added that he had also issued a roaster of heavy and medium industries for conducting camps three days ago and also forwarded it to the health department. “We will hold camps accordingly.” Sources, however, said that in the past, too, several such directives were given a cold shoulder by industrial units. “It’s better to hold camps and bring testing vans to their doorsteps,” said a source form the department. According to Kumar, there are around 27,000 industrial units in micro, small, medium, heavy and service sector categories. Of these, 45 are in heavy category, 149 in medium and 5,227 in the small sector. The rest falls in micro category. Covid helpdesks are, however, functional in only 8,500 units, said Kumar.
,When asked for a comment, a senior health official said providing details should not be a major problem as “a large number of factories already have Covid helpdesks”. He also said that units without these helpdesks should appoint nodal officers to gather and pass on the information every day.
The industrial associations are also not amused by the latest directive. Neeraj Singhal, national vice-president of Indian Industries Association, said, “Why it is expected from us to do everything? What is the role of other departments then? We are already facing staff shortage, and now, one additional work has been assigned to us.”He added that most workers are enrolled with Employees’ State Insurance Corporation which every company in the district pays for. “The state government and Central government should coordinate and ensure free-of-cost Covid testing for the registered employee and their immediate family members. As an industrial organization, we will cooperate with ESIC Hospitals and provide requisite employee documents. This way over 70% of employees will be secured and tested,” he added.
In the past, we had proposed that camps should be held at our campus several times. It was held here and there but the plan was not implemented properly, Singhal claimed.
The sources pointed out that there are almost 5.5 lakh workers engaged in over 27,000 factories, and screening them daily will be an uphill task.
The direction came from the state-appointed nodal officer Senthil Pandian C during the Covid review meeting. Virendra Kumar, deputy commissioner, DIC, said, “We have asked the industrial units to give us the names of staff who were found to be exhibiting symptoms of coronavirus infection at their respective Covid helpdesks.” From the individual helpdesks, the details of symptomatic workers is to be passed on to the industry department who would inform the integrated covid care centre in the district for tracing and testing.
Kumar added that he had also issued a roaster of heavy and medium industries for conducting camps three days ago and also forwarded it to the health department. “We will hold camps accordingly.” Sources, however, said that in the past, too, several such directives were given a cold shoulder by industrial units. “It’s better to hold camps and bring testing vans to their doorsteps,” said a source form the department. According to Kumar, there are around 27,000 industrial units in micro, small, medium, heavy and service sector categories. Of these, 45 are in heavy category, 149 in medium and 5,227 in the small sector. The rest falls in micro category. Covid helpdesks are, however, functional in only 8,500 units, said Kumar.
,When asked for a comment, a senior health official said providing details should not be a major problem as “a large number of factories already have Covid helpdesks”. He also said that units without these helpdesks should appoint nodal officers to gather and pass on the information every day.
The industrial associations are also not amused by the latest directive. Neeraj Singhal, national vice-president of Indian Industries Association, said, “Why it is expected from us to do everything? What is the role of other departments then? We are already facing staff shortage, and now, one additional work has been assigned to us.”He added that most workers are enrolled with Employees’ State Insurance Corporation which every company in the district pays for. “The state government and Central government should coordinate and ensure free-of-cost Covid testing for the registered employee and their immediate family members. As an industrial organization, we will cooperate with ESIC Hospitals and provide requisite employee documents. This way over 70% of employees will be secured and tested,” he added.
In the past, we had proposed that camps should be held at our campus several times. It was held here and there but the plan was not implemented properly, Singhal claimed.
