Lone Danish
Srinagar: The National Secular Forum (NSF) has flayed the J&K Bank authorities for flouting the lockdown guidelines and exposing the lives of its employees to COVID-19 threat; and surfacing of COVID case in its Ambphalla branch is its live example.
In a statement issued, NSF state president Dr Vikas Sharma stated that all the government/autonomous bodies’ institutions were working with staggered strength of employees to avoid rush at working place and to prevent the chances of COVID-19 transmission but, the J&K Bank authorities ordered its employees to remain present in full strength across all its branches hence flouting the lockdown guidelines.
“There are number of employees who are above 50 years of age suffering from various ailments and are most vulnerable to deadly coronavirus. Besides, there are some female employees who are pregnant. There is a need for exempting such employees from attending office till the time lockdown is not lifted completely,” he said.
Dr. Sharma urged the District Administration to carry out inspection in bank branches to check whether lockdown guidelines are followed in letter and spirit or not. And, if anyone found violating the same, he shall be punished for that, he added. The NSF state president also urged R K Chibber, Chairman J&K Bank, to protective equipment including good quality masks, gloves, sanitizers to bank staff and also made provision of thermal scanning of visiting customers.
He further urged the Chairman to fix the responsibility on branch managers who were not following proper guidelines during operation hours in this time of pandemic.
