SAI plan to get cooks from Kerala centre
by Biju Babu CyriacBENGALURU: The Sports Authority of India, South Centre, home to the Indian men’s and women’s hockey squad and around a dozen elite athletes training for the Tokyo Olympics, is looking forward to the arrival of additional manpower. Efforts are on to relocate cooks and mess staff from other SAI centres.
According to sources, the coaches and officials who reside at the SAI campus here, are overworked as they double up as cooks and security guards to make up for the staff who are unable to enter the Centre due to the lockdown.
Efforts to get the employees, including cooks and mess staff, back to the campus suffered a setback last week when one of them passed away and the deceased was later diagnosed with Covid-19.
"The plan is to get about a dozen people including cooks and mess staff from the SAI Centre in Kerala. These employees are sitting idle ever since the nationwide lockdown began in March. They can be spared and can help the South Centre (Bengaluru) till normalcy returns," SAI sources told TOI.
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Sources confirmed that the South Centre officials are already in touch with the Karnataka government to get an official clearance so that the SAI staff can move in immediately to ease the workload of the officials.
"The SAI officials have already made the request to the state government but it’s still pending. Once the government gives the clearance, the staff, who have all been alerted about the move, will travel by road. Once they arrive, they have to undergo mandatory quarantine and necessary tests before starting work," sources added.
Cook’s family members test negative
Meanwhile, the SAI officials and campers heaved a sigh of relief as the test results of the cook’s family members came out negative. "We were told that the results of the tests conducted on his family members have all returned negative," they said.
Sources added that other members of the canteen staff, who attended the planning meeting along with the deceased, are now in institutional quarantine. "A total of seven SAI officials have also undergone Covid-19 tests and their results are awaited," they said.