New Delhi: Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions today released the National Preparedness Survey on COVID 19 – Responses of District Collectors and IAS Officers (2014-2018 batches). A copy of the report is available at https://darpg.gov.in.
The COVID 19 National Preparedness Survey 2020 was conducted in 410 Districts in the Country within 3 working days to attain a bird’s eye view of the governance challenges of the Nation while coping with the greatest health crisis India faced since Independence.
The objectives of this preparedness survey are as follows:
- to develop a comparative analysis of COVID 19 preparedness across States;
- to highlight the main priorities and constraints of COVID 19 preparedness, as they are perceived by the civil servants working in the field;
- to access enabling factors in making institutional/ logistics/ hospital preparedness, etc.;
- to capture trends to identify systemic and process related deficiencies, in combating COVID 19 in the districts of India.
The COVID 19 Preparedness Survey was conducted across all Districts of India, with responses from 410 civil servants who are providing field level leadership. District Collectors and IAS officers of (2014-2018) batches who have served as Assistant Secretaries in Government of India participated in the survey. The survey was conducted in three working days beginning March 25, 2020.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr.Jitendra Singh said that the Prime Minister in his address to the Nation on March 19, 2020 and March 24, 2020 had urged the Indian people to fight to stop the virus with every resource at their disposal. The people responded to the Prime Minister’s commitment to fight the global pandemic in India, was implemented by millions of civil servants, doctors, nurses, health care workers, police officials and common people across the length and breadth of the sub-continent in the period March 22, 2020 till date.
Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the National Preparedness Survey on COVID 19, points out that India’s response has been coherent, purposeful and determined. There was that National, State and District Coordination which has been effective in combating the pandemic. Further he added the Survey has highlighted that the policy actions of the Government – Janata Curfew, National Lockdown, the Economic Package of Rs. 1.7 billion, the RBI announcements are steps which have received overwhelming support.
Dr. Jitendra Singh recognized the immense efforts of Civil Servants, Doctors, Nurses, Health Sector Specialists, Police Officials in implementing the National Lockdown. He highlighted that highlighted that India’s citizens are responsible and cohesive and they have adopted the guidelines of COVID 19 in a systematic manner.
He felt that the survey will serve as a benchmark for policy makers at National and State levels. Dr. Jitendra Singh thanked the Prime Minister for his leadership role in this moment of crisis and hoped that the crisis India was facing would pass in the coming days with the determined efforts of India’s citizens and Government.
Secretary DARPG, Dr. KshtrapatiShivaji, Additional Secretary DARPG V.Srinivas, Joint Secretaries Smt. Jaya Dubey and N.B.S.Rajput along with senior officials of the Department participated in the launch through video conferencing facility.
