Gulabi Bagh residents protest shifting of Tablighi members to neighbouring school for quarantine

NEW DELHI: Hundreds of Delhi government employees residing in Gulabi Bagh here are up in arms over the shifting of around 120 Tablighi Jamaat members to a quarantine centre set up at a school surrounded by flats, and fear the spread of COVID-19 in the area.

The Delhi government employees welfare association has written to Lt Governor Anil Baijal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal demanding that the quarantine centre be shifted to another place where the population is less.

Sanjeev Bharadwaj, president of Gulabi Bagh government flats RWA --- the biggest Delhi government employees residential colony in city, said that there are 15,000 residents in the area and the school, which has been converted into quarantine centre, is located in the middle of residential flats.

He said that if members of Tablighi Jamaat are not shifted immediately to another place, their area, where government employees are engaged in essential public services, maybe the next hotspot.

"There is fear among families of government employees. On Tuesday, two members of Tablighi Jamaat tried to escape from the quarantine centre, but they were caught."

"I have also written to the LG and CM to shift them to such area which is not surrounded by a dense population," Bharadwaj said.

In his letter to Baijal and Kejriwal, the Delhi government employees welfare association general secretary Umesh Batra said that at present, 2500 officers and officials are residing in Gulabi Bagh along with 15,000 family members.

At present, 120 Jamaatis have been sent to this school for quarantine by ignoring the fact that most of the staff residing there is on emergency duty to contain the COVID-19.

"This school is surrounded by residential flats, and residents and their family members are in tension these days as 2-3 members of Tablighi Jamaat tried to escape from this school a few days back," Batra said.

Recently, the Delhi government had evacuated around 2,340 members of Tablighi Jamaat from Nizamuddin Markaz where they attended religious congregation last month.

The Nizamuddin Markaz has emerged as a major hotspot of coronavirus not only in Delhi but also in the country.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the national capital on Wednesday mounted to 669, with 93 fresh cases reported in a day.

According to the health department, the total cases include 426 people who took part in Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin area.