Even as the Maharashtra government has declared coronavirus an epidemic, majority of over 3 lakh IT sector employees in Pune continue to work from offices, while some companies have notified their employees asking them to work from home.
Elavarasan Raja, President of All India Forum for IT Employees, told
“There are many issues involved including infrastructure and security concerns of banking clients,” said Raja adding that how companies are going to implement work from home is a big question. “Nasscom has to clarify how they are handling this situation,” he said.
The State government has declared coronavirus an epidemic in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Nagpur, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said in the Assembly on Friday.
The twin cities of Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad have reported 16 coronavirus-positive patients, the highest number in Maharashtra.
“We have work from home option with some limits. But there is no official word from the management. Some companies have asked employees to take alternate work from home options. It does not make any sense as people will still commute and come to offices,” said one of the IT employees. She added that many employees are scared and don’t want to come to the office.
Meanwhile, Pune Divisional commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar said that shopping malls in the city would remain closed following the spread of Covid-19. However, medicine, vegetable and grocery sections in malls would remain open. He added that if any suspected patient in home isolation violates the norms, she or he will be forcibly quarantined at health institutions.