Stricter vigil over 27 KMC wards – Times of India

KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has identified 27 civic (KMC) wards — where Covid-19 cases have been reported — for stricter vigil.
This plan is a part of the state government’s long-term micro-cluster confinement strategy to contain, test and treat people in these zones.
Mayor Firhad Hakim on Saturday held a meeting with city police commissioner Anuj Sharma to discuss the modalities of taking — and enforcing — special measures, which requires people to stay at home, without the scope of venturing out unless there is an emergency. Hakim also held marathon meetings with the civic brass, including the municipal commissioner and senior officials of all essential services departments.
As part of a strategy, access to markets will be regulated in the specified 27 wards to prevent crowding. According to a senior officer at Lalbazar, cops will also persuade people to attend the fever clinics set up by KMC.
Special KMC teams will then conduct a door-to-door survey, checking on the health of all people in these clusters.
According to KMC sources, the civic body’s social sector department will need to distribute essentials — such as rice, wheat and pulses — among people under the poverty line. The social sector department may take help of civic volunteers to send such staples at their doorsteps. The corporation’s solid waste management department has been asked to conduct regular sanitization drives at the specified zones, as earmarked in the Covid-19 map prepared by the state government, in consultation with public health experts. Officials of the market department have been asked to ensure that traders in all KMC markets keep their stalls rotationally closed to avoid crowding.
At Lalbazar, commissioner Sharma held several meetings with senior police officers to formulate a standard operating procedure for Covid-19-sensitive areas.
“The first step is to help KMC health department officers identify patients and take them to hospital. The police will tackle all law-and-order issues. We will also help the KMC and the state administration to trace all those who need to be quarantined. For this purpose, an IPS officer will act as the nodal officer,” said a senior officer.
KMC councillors in the sensitive areas have been requested to conduct a special awareness drive, asking people to stay at home. The councillors have also been urged to take care of migrant labourers who are stuck in their respective wards because of the lockdown. Clarifying that the state was not in favour of sealing any part of Kolkata, a senior Nabanna official said they were keeping track of areas with a concentration of Covid-19-positive cases. The official added that the police had been asked to restrict movement in those areas. A plan was also being worked out to supply food at doorsteps. “In case of an acute medicine crisis, police will procure them,” said a state government official. A Trinamool councillor from Picnic Garden on Sunday said over 15,000 food packets were being readied to be distributed among migrant labourers and the impoverished in areas such as Tiljala, Topsia, Park Circus and Picnic Garden, among others.

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