Concerns prevail among residents over supply of essentials, containment area

Residents in Sector 9 and Palam Vihar also complained that these areas were plotted colonies spread over a vast area and blanket sealing of them was not needed.

Residents in Gurugram’s nine containment zones on Friday said that they were awaiting clear instructions from the administration regarding the supply of essentials in their areas. They said they had no idea when and how the administration would start supplying essentials, and how they were supposed to function until then.

A security guard checks the temperature of a resident of Devinder Vihar.

Residents in Sector 9 and Palam Vihar also complained that these areas were plotted colonies spread over a vast area and blanket sealing of them was not needed.

Nilesh Tandon, RWA president of Fresco Apartments in Nirvana Country, said that while the containment plan was good for curbing unnecessary travel, it was clouded in ambiguity with little clarity over supply of essentials. Tandon said that he learned about the containment plan via news reports and no prior intimation regarding the sealing had been shared with the RWAs.

“The update about the creation of containment zones reached us via the media last night. The administration didn’t reach out to us. Ideally, the administration should have written to the RWA about the sealing and given us time to make arrangements. In the absence of clear instructions, we are at a loss,” said Tandon.

Asha Johari, a Nirvana Country resident, said that panic was created after it became clear that a hard lockdown was being put in place. “There was panic for a few hours in the afternoon when the RWA communicated the message regarding the sealing. Items started flying off the shelves in shops within the complex. Later, when the MCG bus for supply of essentials came, there were huge queues. I also heard that some residents had ordered food and the delivery persons were not allowed to enter Nirvana,” said Johari.

Tandon added that residents had been going out to the nearby markets to buy essential items till Friday morning. But, with police barricading the locality later in the day, people were dependent on shops within the complex. “Barricades have been placed all around. Residents are being compelled to buy items from shops within the complex which are selling essentials at inflated prices. How will the residents survive till the administration kicks into action? We even wrote to the deputy commissioner, who said that he’d share detailed instructions with us but that hasn’t happened so far,” said Tandon.

He added that the initial containment order had created confusion, since it mentioned Nirvana Country and Sector 54 together where as the township is located in Sector 50. On Friday, the administration re-released the order again that listed Nirvana Country and Sector 54 separately but clubbed them as one of the nine containment zones.

Tandon also said that the inclusion of Nirvana County in the containment zones didn’t seem prudent since Covid-19 cases in Nirvana Country had emerged last month and the affected individuals had recovered two weeks ago. “If there is no positive cases right now, what is the point of including Nirvana Country in the containment zones? Even if they were making a containment zone, they should have first made arrangements for supplies. The administration is not doing anything due to which we are forced to take steps,” said Tandon. The Fresco RWA had tied up with a milk delivery service for the supply of milk from Saturday, but there is little clarity if these services will be allowed to function.

Naresh Kataria, RWA president of Sector 9 — a plotted township developed by Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran, 20 years ago — said that earmarking the whole area under a containment zone was unfair. “There are some gated group housing societies in the sector which are separate from the plotted areas. A virus-positive case had emerged in one such high-rise, Abhinav Apartment, last month and that person has returned home after getting cured. Specific condominiums could have been earmarked instead of the whole sector,” said Kataria.

RWA members of Laburnum Society, another containment zone, said that they were awaiting clarification from the administration regarding the containment zones. “We don’t have details or instructions regarding what these containment zones mean. Till we are clear about what is happening, we can’t say much. There are shops within the complex that are catering to our need of essentials as of now,” said Ashok Tankha, president of Laburnum Society.

Sunil Yadav, former president of the Palam Vihar RWA, said that he was surprised by the inclusion of Palam Vihar among the containment zones. He said that Covid-19 cases were traced from a specific condominium that should have been sealed instead of the whole of Palam Vihar. “Areas close to the affected condominiums were left out while the whole colony was put in the containment zone. We will obey the roles in place but there should have been better earmarking of zones. Palam Vihar is a colony spread over 650 acres. How will essentials reach the whole plotted colony? We don’t know. Implementation should have been done based on ground realities,” said Yadav.

“Delivery of essential items from online delivery retailers will be allowed in the nine containment zones provided all necessary safety precautions are undertaken by the agent delivering the items as well as the residents taking them,” said Amit Khatri, deputy commissioner, Gurugram.