Chief of Staff Represents Army Chief & NOCPCO Head at Webinar Session on ‘COVID-19 Good Governance Practices’

A two-day long Indian government-initiated webinar workshop on ‘Good Governance Practices in a Pandemic (COVID-19) for International Civil Servants’, jointly organized by Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC), Ministry of External Affairs and National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) was inaugurally addressed this afternoon (18) by Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State for Personnel, PG and Pensions.

Major General Jagath Gunawardena, Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Army representing Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army who is also the Head of the National Operation Centre for Prevention COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) was among the first three key contributors to the Session 1 on ‘State Level Best Practices’, chaired by India’s Shri G.V.V Sarma, Member Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority soon after the inauguration took place Thursday afternoon. Apart from the Sri Lankan contributor on the inaugural day, both Smt Dr Shalini Rajneesh, ACS Karnataka and Shri Amir Subhani, ACS, Bihar presented their ‘State Level Best Practices in Karnataka, Gujarat and Bihar’ and the ‘District Level Best Practices in Kerala, Telangana and Jammu & Kashmir’.

The Sri Lankan representative, Major General Gunawardena in his near 15-minute long contribution to the Session-1 summed up the entire chain of developments that has been still on after the detection of the first COVID-19 patient in Sri Lanka, Leadership of HE the President, Prime Minister, Health Minister, Head of the National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO), Director General of Health Services and the commitment of Tri Services, Public Health Inspectors, State Officials, etc, Improvisation of Quarantine Centres, Challenges and vital Health Practices, Preventive Methods, Future Strategies, Lockdowns, Re-opening of Society, Return to Normalcy and the near Successful Sri Lanka's Story against transmission of COVID-19, etc.

Senior Secretaries of the government of Bangladesh, Senior state officials from Bhutan, Kenya, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Somalia, Thailand, Tunisia, Tonga, Sudan and Uzbekistan and are participating in the two-day Sessions (18-19 June).

The other Sessions on Day 1 were chaired by Shri G.V.V Sarma, Member Secretary of the National Disaster Management Authority and the former Cabinet Secretary, Shri Ajit Seth was expected to chair the third session. On Day 2, the sessions would include 'Challenges for the Health Sector and the Vande Bharat Abhiyan. Ms. Sujatha Rao, former Health Secretary, Government of India and CMD, Air India, Shri Rajiv Bansal would be chairing these sessions. The Valedictory Address would be delivered by Dr. Kshatrapati Shivaji, Secretary, DARPG and DPPW, Government of India. Senior officials from participating countries would contribute to the deliberations.

The Indian state official, Shri V. Srinivas, Additional Secretary, DARPG and Director General, National Centre for Good Governance has gone on record stating that the Two-day Workshop was jointly conceptualized by the Ministry of External Affairs, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances and National Centre for Good Governance with the objective of disseminating India’s good governance practices to ITEC countries.

Source: www.army.lk