Pune, March 19: In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the district administration on Wednesday ordered private companies to adopt "work from home" policy for their employees and warned of "harsh" action if the directive is ignored.

According to the district administration, an order to this effect was issued under the Disaster Management Act and firms not adhering to it will face action under section 188 of the IPC. Coronavirus Outbreak in Maharashtra: BMC Readies to Quarantine 26,000 Indians Coming to Mumbai From Gulf Countries.

"From tomorrow (March 19), we will have police teams in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad who will physically check private companies in major IT parks and ensure the order is implemented," said District Collector Naval Kishore Ram. He said the district administration will take "harsh" action against companies not adhering to the order.

Ram said the directive is not applicable to manufacturing units where workers perform their duties by keeping a particular distance from each other.

"This order is applicable for firms which have office set up and do not come under essential services. With this order, call centres whose staffers are required to be present at the office due to the nature of their work will have to be shut," he said.

In the wake of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak and increasing number of positive cases in Pune district, the administration has been appealing to firms to facilitate work from home for their employees. As on Wednesday, Pune district has recorded 19 Covid- 19 cases.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)