How PMO Is Leading India's War On Corona

Mechanism devised for info to reach PM from his ministers in virus-affected areas

- Rahul Shrivastava

A resident of a village in Baghpat district, lodged in an isolation ward in the town tested positive for COVID-19 infection, on March 26. District administration officials immediately reached the village as the DM Shakuntala Gautam declared that all residents of the village will stay in self-quarantine. Health department teams ordered an immediate sanitisation of the village homes and lanes.

Exactly 55 kilometres away from the village, the news of a person testing positive and the follow-up exercise by the administration were reaching the Prime Minister’s Office directly. Not through the state to Centre channels, but a mechanism devised by the Prime Minister. The information has been reaching the PMO through a dedicated email address for updates accessed and operated by several members of the PM Narendra Modi council of ministers. In this case, the PMO’s source for exact information was Sanjeev Balyan, Baghpat MP and Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries.