THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As the government offices in 7 districts are about to restart functioning from Monday onwards, authorities will be concerned about 3 major issues- cleaning the office buildings, disinfecting the buildings and arranging the transport facilities. Chances are high that the offices might function in a somewhat slow manner in the initial days as the government is yet to find solutions to these issues.

As the lockdown restrictions are about to get relaxed in the 7 districts, Class 1 and Class 2 employees of all government offices in these districts are expected to rejoin duty on Monday. Apart from Class 1 and 2 employees, one-third of the employees belonging to the other classes will also report for duty on April 20.

At present, only employees belonging to the police, fire force, health department, hospitals staff, legal metrology department and treasury are working under the lockdown restrictions while almost all the works under the rest of the 54 departments have been halted for the past 4 weeks.

The main headache for the authorities will be the cleansing of the office buildings. Apart from the fact that the offices have remained closed for the last few weeks, there is a huge shortage of cleaning staffs in government offices. It is learnt that the government has suggested making use of the employees under the employment guarantee schemes to look after the cleaning work.

Meanwhile. it is the duty of the district collectors to arrange necessary arrangements to ensure that the office buildings are disinfected. The office heads can avail the help of the health department regarding this. Special IR thermometer has been introduced in various government buildings including the secretariat building.

Another major challenge faced by government employees will be the lack of transport facilities. It must be noted that the government had cancelled the order permitting bus service in the districts that come under orange A and orange B zones. With this, several employees residing far from their office buildings will find it difficult to reach their offices.