IAS officer defies home quarantine, travels to UP

Thiruvananthapuram: An IAS officer in Kerala has been accused of violating quarantine rules which was recommended to him as a precautionary measure when he reported to work after returning from Singapore. Anupam Mishra, the sub-collector of Kollam district in Kerala, returned to Kollam last Thursday after a trip to Singapore and was asked to go into self-isolation as per the protocol for those coming out foreign countries in the backdrop of the coronavirus outbreak.

He was later traced to his home in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur city. The bureaucrat was on leave after his wedding and had taken permission to travel to Malaysia and Singapore, news agency PTI reported. "The sub-collector returned to Kollam on March 19 to join duty but was asked to go into home quarantine as a precautionary measure since he had just returned from abroad after leave. However, on Thursday, we found out that he was not in Kollam. Instead, he had reached Kanpur. He had left on the 19th itself," Kollam Collector B Abdul Nasar said.

After the state government sought an explanation, the collector submitted a report on the IAS officer to the Kerala government, according to NDTV report.

"This is a very irresponsible behaviour. What else can be said about this? There will be action against him. He is not in Kollam," Kerala Fisheries Minister J Mercykutty Amma said.

Kollam is one of the districts in Kerala where not one case of anyone testing positive for the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 has been reported so far.

While 126 people in Kerala are being treated for coronavirus, 12 have recovered, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. Among the six people who were discharged recently are two British nationals.

Over 1.2 lakh people are under observation in the state, of which around 601 have been hospitalised. Around 70 crucial test results are awaited in Kasaragod, the northern-most district in Kerala, which has the maximum number of cases in the state. One of the patients - a man who returned from Dubai and was eventually tested positive - had violated his quarantine as he roamed around attending functions, playing football with children and eating out.