Chennai: The Tamilnadu government has appointed senior IAS officers as monitoring officers for 33 districts, with former Health Secretary Dr Beela Rajesh made in-charge of Krishnagiri, where the coronavirus cases were relative very low.
Senior officer and Agriculture Department Secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi was given in-charge of Cuddalore, drawing from his experience as Collector of the district in effectively handling the 2004 tsunami.
The officers were appointed to monitor the COVID-19 prevention measures and to prevent the spread of the virus.
Amid rising cases in Chennai and three neighbouring districts, Dr Beela Rajesh was transferred as Health Secretary and posted as Secretary, Commercial Tax Department.
She was replaced by Dr J Radhakrishnan, who had held the post before Dr Beela Rajesh.
Her nomination as monitoring officer for Krishnagiri was quite surprising as there were only 44 active cases in the district as her experience as former Health Secretary would have come in handy in districts, where the cases were on the higher side.