At the initiative of Chief Justice, Gita Mittal, the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir, organized a special online programme for Judicial Officers titled “Covid-19: Awareness on the Government SOPs and Protocols”, here today.Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary and Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Sushma Chouhan, conducted the programme as Resource Persons.All the Judicial Officers working in the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh, High Court of J&K staff, staff of Sub-ordinate Courts and other stake holders in justice delivery system participated in the event.The programme was aimed at reminding and elaborating the participants of the SOPs, guidelines and protocols issued by the government from time to time to deal with COVID-19 pandemic. It was further intended to clear the air about lot of misinformation being spread on social media platforms which has been causing confusion as to ways of dealing with the pandemic.Shahid Iqbal Choudhary and Sushma Chauhan, in their presentations, enlisted the measures taken up by the governments at Central and UT level since the time of first case coming to light in India, the reasons for taking precautionary measures like lockdown and restriction of public movement and health management issues.
They highlighted the fact that the pandemic caused by COVID-19 is a stark reality which needs to be faced with lot of caution and self regulation. To minimize the spread of the pandemic the government and its agencies have come up with standard operating procedures, guidelines and advisories to be followed by people across all walks of life, they added. This has been done in order to ensure that the pandemic does not disrupt the essential activities of the public institutions and those of public in general.The resource persons also addressed various misconceptions pertaining to the protocols to be followed in the wake of impending pandemic and about the availability of health remedies. They highlighted the fact that it is necessary for all to follow the government advisories and not to get swayed away by the information flooding the social media. They also talked about the specific precautions required to be taken by the public in accessing the public places, especially the court complexes.In all such public institutions, they told, it is required to minimize assembly of public in large numbers, to maintain social distancing and to wear face masks compulsorily. Hand and face hygiene is essential to be maintained, for which it requires intermittent hands washing, use of sanitizers and avoiding touching of face besides respiratory hygiene is a prerequisite in these times, they added.The awareness programme generated lot of interest among the participants who raised some relevant queries, which were ably responded by the resource persons.