This is an archive article published on June 16, 2020
Domestic help from containment zones can’t be allowed in residential societies, guidelines in 2 days: Dist collectorate
The residential societies, Ram said, can install polioxymeters and thermal scanners, besides providing sanitisers at the entrances. "Rather than asking for medical certificates, societies should take precautions for those coming for non-containment zones," he said.
“In Salisbury Park area, 90 per cent of domestic help come from containment zones,” a resident said.(Express Photo)
District Collector Naval Kishore Ram on Tuesday said guidelines will be issued by the administration in the next two days so that local residents no longer have doubts about rules vis-a-vis containment zones, non-containment zones and quarantine period.
“I have already said that housing societies should not make their own rules on allowing outsiders, including domestic help, into their premises. In city areas, this is the job of the civic bodies and cantonment boards. The central and state governments have clearly spelled out the norms for societies. Since we are still receiving complaints, we have decided to issue guidelines in the next two days and expect residential societies to go through them carefully and abide by them,” said Ram, who is also the chairman of the District Disaster Management Authority.
“The rules are clear in this connection. Domestic help from containment zones can’t be allowed into residential society premises. But residential societies also have no right to ask for medical certificates from domestic help who come from non-containment zones,” he said.
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The residential societies, Ram said, can install polioxymeters and thermal scanners, besides providing sanitisers at the entrances. “Rather than asking for medical certificates, societies should take precautions for those coming for non-containment zones,” he said.
The district collector said the quarantine period for those who come from outside the district and the state has to be decided by the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporations. “The job of the societies is to inform their respective civic bodies that a certain member or members have come from outside the district or the state. Accordingly, the civic health officials will register their names and carry out the required procedure. They will also issue the necessary instructions,” he said.
Pune Police Commissioner K Venkatesham said,”It is common sense that domestic help coming from containment zones should not be allowed. Only those from non-containment zones should be allowed. But at the same time, it is true that no guidelines have been issued in this connection.”
Citing the case of a housing complex in Bibwewadi, he said,”This particular society had maximum number of Covid-19 cases, but now has no positive case. It has been possible because of the initiative of the society members and the PMC officials”.
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Sanjay Pawar, a resident of Salisbury Park in PMC limits, said there was confusion among housing societies. “In Salisbury Park area, 90 per cent of domestic help come from containment zones. The societies or flat owners do not know about the rules… there is no clarity from the district authorities on this count, which has further fuelled the confusion…,” he said.
Rahul Dhankude, a resident of Bhusari Colony, Kothrud, said, “In our area, there are no rules for allowing or disallowing maids. Each flat owner is free to take his/her own decision. I am not sure whether they know from which zones the maids are coming. In Bhusari Colony, domestic helps come from Kelewadi area, which is a containment zone.”
PCMC Additional Municipal Commissioner Santosh Patil said the civic body has not issued any guidelines for residential societies. “If the collectorate issues such guidelines, it will certainly clear doubts among society members and create awareness,” he said.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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“In Salisbury Park area, 90 per cent of domestic help come from containment zones,” a resident said.(Express Photo)
