Ghaziabad society bans doctors’ entry into their own homes

GHAZIABAD: Calling it “discriminatory”, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has objected to an advisory from the Ghaziabad administration asking the city’s doctors and paramedical staff who work in Delhi to stay back in the national capital and not travel home daily.
And within hours of the IMA saying such advisories would only give RWAs the opportunity to harass and “selectively target” the doctor community, a condominium in Ghaziabad’s Vaishali did just that. It banned the entry of medicos residing in the society from Sunday, taking the bizarre step of denying people entry to their own houses.

The apartment owners association (AOA) of Neelpadam Kunj cited a letter from Ghaziabad municipal corporation commissioner Dinesh Chandra in its notice, which said, “We respectfully appeal to our fellow residents, who are doctors, paramedical staff and working in different hospitals in Delhi to make a temporary arrangement of their stay in Delhi till the lockdown period and attend their duties from Delhi-based residence only. As we are already staying in a government-sealed complex, we have to implement this at the earliest date. Hence, we will stop the exit and entry of doctors and paramedical staff who are residing in NPK from early morning of Sunday onwards.” The society is in a containment zone.
Ram Tiwari, the AOA head, could not be contacted for comments.
The district administration later came out with a clarification, saying it had just made an appeal to doctors to stay back in Delhi. But a slew of directives, advisories and orders during the lockdown have created a haze around rules and laid the ground for arbitrary notices like these to be issued by RWAs and AOAs.
Although the appeal had been issued by the health department on April 30, it came to the notice of doctors only this Wednesday after Chandra directed officials to coordinate with local councillors and RWA office-bearers and publicise the directive.
Chandra told TOI his “instructions” were based on the CMO’s “appeal”. Ghaziabad SSP Kalanidhi Naithani said police would look into the AOA notice. “We haven’t received a complaint yet,” he said.
The IMA came out with a statement on Thursday, said it would not accept the “objectionable” letter. “The RWA does not have any right to stop any person from coming to his residence. It is an infringement of one’s right and a punishable offence. To say that the doctor or paramedical staff is at risk of spreading corona in the public is highly condemnable. Are you (district authorities) pitting RWA against the doctor?” the statement read.
IMA treasurer Navneet Kumar Verma said the health department’s notice would only dampen the morale of doctors and paramedical staff. “This will encourage the society to see doctors with contempt. RWAs will selectively target doctors and paramedical staff and prevent them from coming to their home and obstruct their work,” he said.
“Instead of this, the administration should have urged the Delhi government to make arrangements for its employees. We would also like to question if only healthcare staff are bringing coronavirus from Delhi to Ghaziabad,” he added.
The IMA also objected to the language used in the health department’s directive. It demanded that the order be withdrawn soon and requested the administration not to issue any such directive in the future. “All are working in some form or the other by putting their lives at stake here. Passing orders with such confusing language is not acceptable at all,” the statement said.
Following the controversy, the Ghaziabad health department issued a clarification on Thursday evening that the April 30 notice was only an advisory and not an order. “The appeal was made keeping in mind the rising number of cases related to movement between Delhi and Ghaziabad, and on the basis of the surveillance team’s report that there is a huge chance of cross-border transmission of the infection. However, it is just an advisory and not binding on anyone,” chief medical officer NK Gupta said
“We have also made arrangements for people from other districts who work here so that they do not go back home,” he added.
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