No containment zone in city

UT ADMN DENOTIFIES POCKET NO. 15 IN BAPU DHAM COLONY; ONLY A FEW HOUSE BLOCKS TO HAVE RESTRICTIONS

CHANDIGARH: After more than a month and a half, the UT administration denotified the last remaining containment zone in the city — Pocket No. 15 in Sector 26’s Bapu Dham Colony — on Monday.

With this, no area in the city is a designated containment zone, though some house blocks, including in Bapu Dham Colony, continue to be quarantined after fresh Covid-19 cases have been reported there recently.

For containing the spread of the virus, the administration had declared six areas as containment zones on May 2. Strict perimeter control was enforced in these areas, which included parts of Sectors 30, 38 and 52 besides Shastri Nagar in Manimajra, Kachi Colony in Dhanas and Bapu Dham Colony in Sector 26.

On the basis of a report submitted by the affected area committee, UT administrator VPS Badnore on Monday decided to open up all pockets in Bapu Dham Colony, except for a few house blocks. With this order, perimeter control has also been removed from Pockets No. 7, 13 and 20, which were buffer zone. However, a few house blocks in Pockets No. 4, 5, 15 and 16 continue to be under strict perimeter control.

NORMS FLOUTED AS CREDIT WAR ENSUES

While barricades were being removed from Pocket No. 15, heavy jostling and sloganeering were witnessed with supporters of both the Congress and BJP trying to take the credit for relaxations.During the melee, social distancing norms were flouted with impunity. Police had intervene and separate supporters of both parties.

City Congress president Pardeep Chhabra said, “The local councillor failed to turn up here for nearly three months while people were in trouble. Now, he has come to take all the credit for opening up of the area.”

On the other hand, councillor Dalip Sharma, who belongs to the BJP, said: “Congress workers and their city president didn’t help Bapu Dham Colony residents all these months. We have worked for all the 20 pockets of the colony. Now, they want to take all the credit.”

Meanwhile, keeping in view frequent violation of social distancing norms, the administration will start a special drive to impose on-the-spot fines on people found not wearing masks and flouting other rules.