Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who resumed office on Thursday after being in home quarantine for eight days, approved the immediate removal of his officer on special duty (OSD) who has been accused of corruption.

Gopalji Tiwari on immediate basis in connection to various charges of graft which surfaced recently.

Hours after Hemant’s joining, the state personnel department issued a notification about the removal of Gopal Tiwari.

A source in the chief minister’s office said, “He (Tiwari) had few days back offered to be removed from the position of OSD after corruption charges surfaced against him. The CM approved it with immediate effect. Gopalji, will, however, continue to be joint secretary in the state road construction department and face a probe as and when it is initiated against him.”

Earlier in the day, Hemant met a limited number of visitors and held a marathon meeting with senior officials to take stock of the state’s Covid-19 situation, which, in last few days, has turned worse both in terms of positive cases and casualties.

On Wednesday night, the state recorded over 300 cases, the highest single-day spike so far.

Representative from PHIA Foundation, a partner of Azim Premji Foundation, were among the delegations whom Hemant met.Later, in a statement, the chief minister said he foundation donated medical kits worth Rs 3.28 crore to the state government as its contribution to the fight against Covid-19 fight.

“The medical kits include 12,700 PPE kits, 20,300 N-95 masks, 5 TruNet machines and 2 Thermo Fisher RNA extractor machines. These will help us ramp up testing to over 3,000 samples per day,” he said.

A CMO official added that Hemant also cleared half a dozen pending files pertaining to various departments. About the Covid-19 meeting, he added, “The CM directed the health department to increase testing and asked police to ensure strict implementation of all SOPs.”

Last week, Hemant isolated himself a day after state water resources minister Mithilesh Thakur and JMM’s MLA from Tundi Mathura Prasad Mahto tested positive for Covid-19. Later, a Covid-19 test was performed on Hemant and his family members.

Although the reports were negative, the chief minister continued to remain in isolation for few more days on the advice of the state health department.