Pune citizens not cooperating with PMC officials during COVID survey

Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is facing problems to get information and cooperation from citizens during its teams' door-to-door visits as part of a survey for the coronavirus spread. Therefore, Mayor Murlidhar Mohol has appealed to citizens to cooperate with PMC officials during the survey.

PMC has been surveying for the past 15 days. They have formed 125 teams. Over 878 employees and officials are conducting the survey. The teams visited over two lakh households. Till date, over seven lakh citizens have been screened. These teams will ensure that those who have returned from foreign countries take rest for 14 days and quarantine themselves. They will even be checked for symptoms of the coronavirus.

"These teams are conducting an awareness drive in the city and giving information about coronavirus and why it is important to stay at home during the outbreak. The teams would also advise relatives of patients, who have tested positive for COVID-19 to quarantine themselves.

"People are not cooperating with the PMC employees. They do not provide information. In some areas, they do not tell the names of SARI patients, and avoid suspects' names and addresses. This is not only happening in slum areas but also in housing societies," said one of the officials.

Mayor Mohol said, "In the COVID-19 outbreak situation, the civic employees are working hard. They are visiting homes to collect information so that PMC can take appropriate and quick measures to control the epidemic. PMC is working only for the citizens. Every citizen must help our employees."

Dr Vashali Jadhav, PMC Assistant Medical officer, who is also in charge of the survey, said, "When our team members visited housing societies, they were restricted at the gate. Despite PMC officials' Identity cards, people refuse to give information. In slum areas, people think that we are conducting a National Registered Citizen (NRC) survey and they are snatching our papers and tearing them. Now, the survey is being conducted under police protection."