Noida shuts parks and community centres indefinitely

The Noida authority on Tuesday shut all parks, open gyms and community centres in urban and rural areas until further notice, to discourage public gatherings amid

The Noida authority on Tuesday shut all parks, open gyms and community centres in urban and rural areas until further notice, to discourage public gatherings amid the lockdown to prevent community spread of Covid-19. The authority has also deployed staff teams, in shifts, to provide essential services to people during the lockdown.

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Essential services such as water supply, waste management, sewer management and disinfection drives continue uninterrupted.

“We have ordered a shutdown of all city parks, open gyms and community centres, until further orders, in order to check the spread of Covid-19,” said Ritu Maheshwari, chief executive officer of the Noida authority.

Officials said that the decision was taken after many people were observed gathering in these places for walks and other activities. The authority has 726 parks in rural and urban areas, in total, and community centres in 150 residential sectors and 50 villages.

“The community centres, which are indirectly being maintained by the residents’ welfare associations, have been shut indefinitely and the keys of these centres will remain with respective project engineers. The community centres in all villages have also been shut,” said Maheshwari.

She also assigned specific duties to senior officials for smooth management of essential services. Noida’s officers on special duty, Rajesh Kumar, Santosh Upadhyay and Naveen Singh, and additional CEO, Shruti, will oversee the call centre services — 120-2425025, 2425026, 2425027 — through which residents can get their works done.

Additional CEO Praveen Mishra will oversee the health department, which has the onus of picking up waste and undertaking remediation work.

The authority’s general managers have also been assigned duties — Rajeev Tyagi will look after city parks and gyms, and ensure that these spaces remain closed to the public, while KK Aggarwal will look after maintenance and disinfection work of public toilets.

The authority also disinfected 15 toilets, which are functional along the city’s main roads.