Not a single housing society has been penalised for violating the norms issued by the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) pertaining to micro containment zones earlier this month. As of March 26, there are 1,084 buildings marked as active micro containment zones across Mumbai.
As per the BMC's guidelines issued on April 6, buildings/ housing societies marked as micro containment zones, if found violating the guidelines of isolation and containment, shall be fined Rs 10,000 in the first instance by BMC officials. Any subsequent default shall attract a fine of Rs 20,000.
However, according to BMC officials, not a single housing society has been fined for violations since the guidelines were issued earlier this month. Currently, there are 1,084 buildings sealed as micro containment zones. These sealed buildings comprise 1.56 lakh households and cover a population of 6.43 lakh residents.
As of April 27, the total active cases in the city is 66,045. The civic body has been aggressively tracing high-risk and low-risk contacts of COVID-19 patients. It has also been sealing buildings where five or more cases are detected. "Many societies in Mumbai do not have full-time security guards/ watchmen. Not all housing societies have CCTVs installed. So there is no vigilance on who comes out and goes in. It is a fact that even the office bearers are busy with their jobs and business and they cannot pay attention to it 24 hours a day. Therefore, I seriously doubt the implementation of these norms. The rule of giving a PPE kit to the security guards is also not followed anywhere in Mumbai as per the rules of the state government. Hence, all these guidelines are just on papers I think," said Amogh Kulkarni, resident of Vile Parle.
"The micro containment zones are strictly watched. Cops have been stationed at many of these buildings. Our staff are constantly in touch with the office bearers of residential complexes and housing societies that are sealed as micro containment zones," said a senior BMC official.
