Ghanshyam Thori- The DC who saved Jalandhar during second wave of Covid
Jalandhar, 8 July 2022 : Though the outgoing Deputy Commissioner Jalandhar Ghanshyam Thori will always be remembered for his numerous good works for Jalandhar but chiefly for his efforts for saving the Jalandhar residents from the second wave of Corona.
The year 2021 saw mighty wave of Covid coming back and engulfing the people but it witnessed tremendous commitment, dedication and firmness by Deputy Commissioner to save the precious lives of people by acting as a barrier between second wave of Covid and people. Exhibiting remarkable administrative skills Thori not only saved the people from scourge of the pandemic’s second wave but he made sure that infra structure was spruced up and used to its full potential so that any such threat can be met with full might in the coming times too. A dynamic and farsighted Deputy Commissioner led the officers of the administration as a perfect team leader by distributing every task to his team members and then making sure that the officers deliver it in a time bound and result oriented manner.
Not only this through regular monitoring of the medicines and other resources the Deputy Commissioner made sure that it was available to the needy well at time. The second wave saw lot of hue and cry over shortage of oxygen cylinders and medicines like Remdesivir but Deputy Commissioner ensured proper checks and balances over its procurement and supplies due to which no unruly scene was witnessed in Jalandhar. As a fact of matter Jalandhar emerged as the only district in the state where there was hardly any scarcity of these vitals equipments and medicines to combat the second wave.
The efforts of Deputy Commissioner and his entire team never went unnoticed and were applauded by the people on one hand and by the state government on the other. Apart from treatment, the Deputy Commissioner also laid major thrust on prevention of the fatalities in wake of second wave. He personally planned, executed and monitored the vaccination drive so that every strata of the society was aptly covered in that.
The result was also miraculous as district administration even touched the magic figure of around 50,000 jabs in a single day through a sustained, well planned and aptly executed vaccination drive. As a fact of matter, the leadership of Deputy Commissioner galvanized the entire government machinery which ultimately saved the people from the pandemic to a great extent.Thori was able to kindle a ray of hope, goodwill, development and human touch to save the people from scourge of this deadly virus.
Fishing in the troubled waters, he not only ensured that people do not fell prey to the virus but it also played a commendable role in imparting quality health services to the people, who suffered from Corona Virus. His efforts to save people from the virus were not only hailed by one and all, but people also lauded the manner in which the entire team of district administration led by him remained on forefront for the well being of people. Thori made sure that Jalandhar Civil Hospital becomes the first government health facility in Punjab to have an oxygen generation plant during that period.
Not only this Under his leadership Jalandhar became the first and only district from the state to figure in the top five list of Prime Minister’s Awards in the category of improving service delivery as Jalandhar was leading in Punjab for delivering public services in a stipulated time-frame set up by the government since July and has the lowest pendency rate hitherto. Under Thori, the district administration during its course to kill the massive pendency evolved a mechanism to ensure the citizen’s feedback besides monitoring the daily progress of the Sewa Kendras.
This mammoth exercise to reduce pendency and implementing time-bound delivery of the services was initiated amid the Coronavirus pandemic and thus Jalandhar became the only district in Punjab, to became the only district in state with minimum pendency.