Protests against plan to turn hotels in residential areas into Covid centres

Ranchi: A day after the Ranchi district administration selected three hotels in different areas of the city to set up paid isolation centres to increase the number of beds for asymptomatic Covid-19 patients, residents of Station Road area, concerned about the health risks, took to the streets on Thursday morning to protest against the decision citing health risks.
The protestors barricaded the main approach road leading to the three hotels in the area by installing and pasted posters announcing a ban on entry of Covid-19 patients in the area. They said that they will not allow any isolation centre in the residential area. The residents also wrote Ranchi deputy commissioner Chhavi Ranjan saying they are worried about the risk of infection to the children and the elderly in the 200-odd families living in the area.
Talking to TOI, Lakhi Singh, a resident of Kishan Singh Colony, said: “There is just one approach road leading to our neighborhood and it also connects the three hotels -- A K residency, R K residency and Hotel Embassy -- that have agreed to function as isolation centres. All of us use the same road to commute every day we will be exposed to the virus if the hotels are converted into Covid centres.”
“There are two shops near the gurudwara in our area where people purchase essentials. The hotels are a stone’s throw away and the whole colony will be at risk of getting infected. Had there been another approach road to reach these hotels, we would have agreed to the decision, but we cannot allow isolation centres to come up in the middle of a residential colony,” said Rajendra Prasad, another resident.
Officials in the district administration said they have contacted the residents and a delegation of locals will meet the DC, after which a decision will be taken on the issue. “A few persons in the neighbourhood have objected to our decision. They have been invited to meet the DC to raise their concerns,” Ranchi SDM Lokesh Mishra said.
On Wednesday, the Ranchi district administration selected three hotels in Station Road and one near Piska More to be tagged with private hospitals to treat asymptomatic Covid patients. “The isolation centre at a banquet hall near Piska More with 45 beds has started operations and we will soon start the other facilities,” Shweta Ved, executive magistrate, said.