Barricades at micro-containment zone in Sector 35, Chandigarh, on Tuesday. (Express photo by Kamleshwar Singh)RESIDENTS OF one of the micro-containment zones in Sector 35 on Tuesday filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court alleging house arrest/confinement by the administration under the garb of COVID-19. The petition will come up for hearing on Wednesday. It has been filed by advocate Naresh Dilawari, who is also among those who were not allowed to step outside their houses.
Around 35 people were confined inside their houses despite the fact that they all tested negative for COVID-19.
Certain members of the two families tested COVID-19 positive on September 23. A single lane consisting of six residential units, in which two dozen families are residing, was declared a containment zone on September 24. Six residential units are triple-story buildings. The authorities collected samples for coronavirus test of all the local residents and 35 people tested negative.
Advocate Dilawari said, “We pleaded before the authorities that there are only two houses, in which people have tested positive. Hence we should be allowed to resume our daily works following all the precautionary norms. But all in vain. We also sent a written communication to the UT Adviser but are yet to receive any reply. Even we were not allowed to sit on our verandas for five days initially. Later, we were allowed to sit on the veranda but were not allowed to come in the streets.”
As per the micro-containment zone rules, residents in any containment area are not allowed to come out from their houses. They were being provided basic amenities at their doorstep. The concept of micro-containment zone was adopted in Chandigarh on the recommendation of health department officials. The Affected Area Committee identifies the containment zones on the basis of reporting of COVID-19 positive cases. At present, there are around two dozen micro-containment zones throughout Chandigarh.
A senior officer attached with the process to declare containment zones said, “Containment zones were declared on the recommendation of health and administrative officials. Fourteen days is the minimum period of the containment zone. Teams of health department conduct repeated intensive screening, sanitisation and medical treatment of the people residing in the containment zones.”
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