COVID-19: TN govt names senior bureaucrat as Spl Nodal Officer to coordinate with Chennai Corpn

Amid a sharp spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in this city, the Tamil Nadu government on Friday appointed senior bureaucrat J Radhakrishnan as Special Nodal Officer for Greater Chennai Corporation to coordinate coronavirus related issues with the civic body chief. Radhakrishnan will be supported by a team of five senior police officials, including four ADGP-rank officers, a government order from Chief Secretary K Shanmugam said.

Radhakrishnan, Principal Secretary/Commissioner, Revenue Administration, Disaster Management and Mitigation, will coordinate with GCC Commissioner G Prakash and other teams constituted for the virus containment activities and "to ensure effective implementation of various guidelines issued by the government," the order said. Chennai, with 906 positive cases as on April 30, has the highest number of infections in the state, whose cumulative tally is 2323 so far.

ADGPs Mahesh Kumar Agarwal, Abash Kumar, Amaresh Pujari and Abhay Kumar Singh and DIG K Bhavaneeswari will support Radhahrishnan and will be taking care of respective zones in the city, besides its suburbs. The Tamil Nadu government has already constituted Zonal Special Task Teams and other panels of IAS officials as part of its fight against the spread of the contagion.PTI SA SS PTI PTI