Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man

“I tell my men that it’s a huge opportunity to work to manage the COVID-19 crisis—a once in a lifetime opportunity”

PRATYAYA AMRIT, 52

PRINCIPAL SECRETARY, DISASTER MANAGEMENT, Bihar

COVID DEED

In charge of the state’s response to the reverse migration, he leads the mammoth exercise of quarantining perhaps 800,000 people

In the last week of March, as the national lockdown began, about 175,000 migrant workers arrived in Bihar’s border districts, demanding to be for use as quarantine centres. Food, supplies, medical staff and cooks had to be arranged, as well as busses to take migrants from Bihars borders to quarantine camps in their districts. Fifteen days later, when people started leaving the camps, not a single one showed symptoms of the virus.