Pune: The district office of the department of cooperation released a statement on Monday mentioning that the housing complexes should not restrict anyone entering their societies from outside the red zones and also those people who are responsible for providing a large number of services and operations.

A list of guidelines was issued by the cooperation department to make all the housing society members aware of the fact that economic stability and improvement is also necessary just like the health and safety of people residing in the complexes. The guidelines issued read as, “Housing societies cannot stop tenants or agents/brokers coming from outside containment zones.”

According to the TOI report, the rental markets and the secondary business operations had suffered a major loss after many residential complexes restricted the entry of people providing different services to ensure safety among the residents. In some cases, they even surpassed the boundaries of the law. Recently, an inhuman incident came into the light where the police launched an FIR against a housing society secretary for denying entry to a pregnant woman and her family members and asking for a medical certificate from them for ensuring whether she was lying or not.

The guidelines also stated that housing societies should mandatorily install temperature guns and pulse oximetres at the entrance gates for scanning the health status of people arriving into the complexes from outside and also providing them with hand sanitizers to ensure safety and hygiene.

A guideline in the four-page document stated, “If anyone’s pulse oxygen reading level is less than 95, then she or he should immediately get themselves checked.”

The document was duly signed by divisional deputy registrar of Pune district, Sangeeta Dongare. “It has come to our notice that some housing societies are forming rules that are contrary to the rules issued by the district administration,” read the document.

The guidelines also instructed all the residences in the complexes to maintain a distance of at least six feet while moving out and interacting with people on the complex premises. It also mentioned that the housing authorities are not allowed to restrict the movement of medical and paramedic staff from visiting their homes in the society itself.

The guideline also declared that the house-helps to come from non-containment areas must be allowed to enter the societies, and the authorities should not ask for any COVID-test medical certificates on their entry.

“If a domestic help wants to provide services to a particular member, there should be no stopping that. The member must also give the domestic help a bag to keep their belongings, make them wash their hands and face and stress on the usage of masks,” it further added.

The guidelines said that newspaper delivery along with the delivery of essential items like milk, grocery and vegetables on the doorstep with utmost safety is permitted. It also added that the people in the societies should not behave indifferently with those returning from abroad or patients who have recovered from the COVID-19 infection.

The society is not allowed to object anyone from self quarantining if he or she wishes to do so. The guideline stated, “Cooperative societies must not put needless restrictions on people staying in the society.”