Pune Municipal Corporation restricts entry of visitors to civic offices: ‘Write e-mails to officials instead’

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Tuesday decided to restrict the entry of people to civic officers, and asked them to communicate with the respective department only through email. Civic departments have also been asked to use e-mail for internal communications, instead of in-person visits.

“As part of new restrictions to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the city, the PMC is putting restrictions on local residents, except elected representatives, from visiting civic offices except for emergency reasons. This is being done to avoid crowding in civic offices,” said Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar. The head of civic departments would have to issue entry passes to all visitors invited for a meeting in civic offices, he said.

“Local residents should not visit civic offices in person and instead email their complaints, suggestions or applications to the respective civic departments,” said Kumar.

Similarly, civic departments should also communicate with each other through e-mail, he said.

The PMC has been witnessing a rapid surge in Covid-19 cases, with the city reporting a higher number of new patients than recovered ones for a second consecutive day. On Tuesday, 3,226 new cases were reported, taking the daily positivity rate to 24.01 per cent. There were 27 deaths, taking the toll to 5,270 while the active case count was 32,806 on March 30.

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Night curfew has already been imposed in the city from 8 pm to 7 am, while commercial establishments have been asked to pull down their shutters by 8 pm.

The PMC is likely to impose more restrictions in Pune, one of the worst hit cities in India in the second wave of the pandemic.