Indirapuram residents complain of high-rises having Covid cases not contained, sanitised

Ghaziabad: The residents of various high-rises in Indirapuram have alleged that the district administration has not taken up sanitisation or containment procedures in their societies despite having multiple Covid-19 cases

Ghaziabad: The residents of various high-rises in Indirapuram have alleged that the district administration has not taken up sanitisation or containment procedures in their societies despite having multiple Covid-19 cases. According to records of the district administration, Ghaziabad had a total of 876 containment zones till Saturday, of which about 400 (45.66%) are under the Indirapuram police station limits.

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Also, of 2,300 active Covid-19 cases in the district, 469 cases are in the Indirapuram area, the data showed.

As a result of the issues prevailing, the local RWAs/apartment owners’ associations (AOA) are forced to take the work of limited sanitisation in their own hands and they are also trying their best to contain the movement of infected patients.

“We have 27 Covid cases in our high-rise comprising 441 flats. The cases have come in during the past 10 days or so, but no teams from the district administration have visited so far either to take up containment or sanitisation. We have been informing officials regularly but there is no response,” said Anil Sharma, president of Ashiana Upvan AOA in Ahimsa Khand II.

The office bearers of ATS Advantage AOA said that they have a tally of about 125 cases in their high-rise having 1,968 flats. “No one has come so far for containment or sanitisation. We are doing sanitisation on our own. We also want that a testing camp should be held so that our residents can get themselves tested,” said Sanjay Jain, president of ATS Advantage AOA.

The areas having positive cases are defined as containment zones where there is a restriction on movement of people, except in case of essential services.

Members of other AOAs like the one at Exotica Elegance also echoed similar sentiments. “We have about 32-35 Covid cases known so far in our high-rise comprising 325 flats. There is no sealing or sanitisation. These patients are in five towers. Since, no teams of administration have come so far, we are forced to take up sanitisation on our own. In absence of containment by the administration, we cannot force residents to stay indoors but we are trying our best,” said KK Singh, president of Exotica Elegance AOA.

Likewise, Niho-Scottish Garden high-rise has about 900 flats and the AOA members said that they have about 55 Covid cases. “There has been no sanitisation by the administration team, and we have been taking it up on our own. We are keeping an eye on affected patients and also built one isolation centre equipped with five beds, oxygen supply and medicines. On Saturday, we called up a corporation team for sanitisation with the help of our councillor. But there is no containment exercise taken up so far,” said Naresh Chhokar, president of the high-rise AOA.

The district administration officials admitted that they were short of resources as many staff were deployed for the recently concluded panchayat elections.

“We will get the containment and sanitisation exercise expedited in affected high-rises of Indirapuram. There has been some delay, but we will take it up at the earliest,” said Shailendra Kumar Singh, additional district magistrate (city) and in-charge of containment zones.

District magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey was unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, Krishna Karunesh, vice-chairperson of Ghaziabad development authority (GDA), said, “We are taking up sanitisation on major roads and open areas in localities, and teams of administration and health department should assist us to help out the residents of high-rises,” said Karunesh. GDA maintains the Indirapuram locality.

District administration officials familiar with the development also said that they were not getting proper information of cases from the district Covid command and control room and this is why they were not able to send timely information to the local police.

HT on April 13 had published a report that many of the containment zones were not clearly demarcated and the ground level situation in the district is different from the list of containment zones which is updated on daily basis by the district administration.

On April 3, UP chief secretary RK Tiwari issued an order for surveillance in which areas having one positive case was to be created as a containment zone in a radius of 25 metres (comprising about 20 houses), while areas having more than one case will be in form of a cluster and having a radius of 50 metres (comprising about 60 houses). For the high-rises, the directions said that in case of emergence of one Covid case, the entire floor will be contained while in case of multiple cases, the entire tower will be contained.

In another order on April 11, the UP chief secretary had directed that the supply of essential commodities should be ensured in all containment zones.

“We are taking up sanitisation on major roads and open areas in localities and teams of administration and health department should assist us to help out the residents of high-rises,” said Krishna Karunesh, vice-chairperson of Ghaziabad development authority, which maintains Indirapuram locality.