This is an archive article published on March 28, 2021
Following Covid surge, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner issues new curbs to contain spread of virus
From March 28 (Sunday), gathering of five or more persons has been prohibited from 8 pm to 7 am next morning. Anyone found violating the norms will be fined Rs 1,000.
Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Comissioner Rajesh Patil (Express photo)
With Pune witnessing a rapid surge in the number of Covid-positive cases this month, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Rajesh Patil on Sunday issued revised guidelines. While issuing the new norms, he urged citizens to cooperate in a bid to control the spread of the virus and asked officials to strictly implement the guidelines.
As per the new guideliness, citizens have been urged to wear masks at workplaces and while travelling. “If anyone is found without masks, they will be fined Rs 500,” the order said. Similarly, those who are found spitting at public places will be find Rs 1000, the order said.
Citizens have been urged to maintain a six-feet distance at public places. “It is will be the responsibility of the shopkeepers to ensure their customers maintain social distance. At the same time, there should not be more than five customers should be allowed within the shop area,” the guidelines stated.
At workplaces, workers and staff should carry out their duty by maintaining distance. Even during meal hours, distance should be maintained.
At public places, eating or chewing paan, tobacco or gutkha has been prohibited.
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Offices, industries, malls and shopping complexes have been urged to encourage people to work from home. They have been asked to plan their working hours in advance. They should also conduct thermal screening of anyone who visits the premises and ensure availability of hand-wash and sanitisers at their entry point. The entry points also need to be sanitised regularly. All offices will function only with 50 per cent attendance.
The order said containment zone norms will remain in place till further orders. Citizens have been asked to follow the containment zone norms strictly. On Sunday, Pimpri-Chinchwad had 1,200 micro containment zones and more than 200 major containment zones.
From March 28 (Sunday), gathering of five or more persons has been prohibited from 8 pm to 7 am next morning. Anyone found violating the norms will be fined Rs 1,000.
Except for essential services and medical shops, all hotels, restaurants, bars, food courts, theatres and auditoriums will remain closed from 8 pm to 7 am. Parcel service and door-step delivery from hotels will continue. “If these norms are violated, the guilty hotels and restaurants will be sealed as per the Disaster Management Act,” the order said.
All kinds of social, political, religious and cultural meetings have been banned. Bhoomi pujan, inaugurations and the likes have also been banned.
Marriages have been allowed with the presence of only 50 people.
Funerals and 10th day rituals and other rituals have been allowed with presence of 20 people.
All gardens in Pimpri-Chinchwad will remain closed till further orders.
All officials, including assistant commissioners and zonal officers, have been allowed to provide full information to citizens about home isolation. If home isolation norms are violated, the concerned person should be immediately admitted to a Covid Care Centre.
After a person tests positive, a notice of 14 days’ isolation should be stuck on the door of the concerned citizen, the order 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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