The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has asked citizens to pay serious heed to the use of masks. (File)
Stepping up efforts to contain the sudden spike in COVID-19 cases, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has urged residents of the industrial area to wear handmade masks when they go out to purchase medicines, vegetables or other grocery items.
Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar said asked citizens to pay “serious heed” to the use of masks. “Besides washing hands in short intervals for 20 seconds, as well as maintain social distance, we want citizens to also wear masks when they step out of their homes…” he said.
Senior civic officials said the Union Health Ministry has also recommended the use of handmade masks in place of surgical masks. “The Ministry has said that use of handmade masks should be encouraged by local self-government bodies in their respective jurisdictions as an effective way to control spread of the contagion,” said a senior health official.
Hardikar said citizens need go to nearest medical shops to purchase the medical masks. “But they can make masks out of handkerchiefs or a piece of cloth to three layers. Citizens should ensure they wash the handkerchief after three to four hours and use a new one one,” he said.
PCMC health officials said if civic bodies advocate the use of masks in medical stores, their prices will shoot up. “Last week, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray also advised using a piece of cloth or handkerchiefs make masks,” a health department official said.
Hardikar said that while they are making appeals to citizens right now, if they refuse to listen, police might be used to enforce the law. “
Deputy Commissioner of Police Smita Patil said police was taking action against those unnecessarily moving out of their homes. “We booked several persons under Section 188 of the IPC. We will soon decide on what legal action should be taken against those found without masks,” she said.
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BJP Pimpri-Chinchwad president Mahesh Landge, MLA, said he will ask all his party corporators to spread awareness about compulsory use of masks in their respective areas. “The BJP will do its bit in this connection…Our corporators will go in their respective areas to create awareness among the masses about the use of masks,” he said.
Appeal to Markaz attendees
The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has appealed to those who had attended Nizamuddin Markaz to come forward and undergo the test for coronavirus.
On Monday, Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar said, “It is noticed that a few citizens from Pimpri-Chinchwad had attended Nizamuddin Markaz. Some of them have come forward, but there are still some who have not. We urge them to…undergo (coronavirus) tests at PCMC hospitals.”
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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The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has asked citizens to pay serious heed to the use of masks. (File)
