As the State is bracing up for a sustained campaign against the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department had given a slew of instructions to its wings with maximum public interface like the Metro Rail, GHMC and Metro Water Board to ensure that the virus is contained effectively.
In the detailed orders issued on Tuesday, the Department wanted the officials concerned to communicate the measures to all their sub-offices and sensitise and orient the functionaries for scrupulous adherence of them in letter and spirit. The offices were asked to arrange for sanitisers/hand washing facilities at their entrances and strictly restrict the entry of visitors. They could instead indicate contact number/e-mail id wherein queries of the people could be attended to.
The Director of Vigilance, Enforcement and Disaster Management of the GHMC should enforce the regulation of all guidelines under the orders issued by the government during the lockdown period. The penal provisions would include closure of establishment/institution/organization and filing of appropriate criminal cases against persons/individuals under the relevant laws, including the IPC, Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
In case of essential services, they should opt for decentralized delivery of services to the extent possible to avoid scope for any public gathering at collection/distribution centres. Social distancing norms should be maintained even among the staff ensuring painting of foot marks at a distance of five feet from each other at the service delivery/collection counters besides providing duty chart/work schedule till March 31.
Metro rail
The Hyderabad Metro Rail should close down the operation of train services and prevent access to the metro stations to any visitors. It should close down commercial activity in the metro stations and malls attached to them and ensure that there was proper sanitation around all its precincts. The GHMC Commissioner, on his part, should set up a control room with representation from all departments to receive grievances and monitor the situation.
The contact number of the control room should be publicized to make it a reliable first point of contact to citizens. The control room should be made to function with shift-wise deployment of staff on 24X7 basis while the officials concerned should also make use of social media for their communication needs. They should keep record of the complaints received and grievances redressed and ensure zero response time for redressal of grievances.
Maintain sanitation
The GHMC Commissioner should give top most priority to maintenance of sanitation and public health and instruct all the zonal and deputy commissioners to make necessary arrangements to keep the city environs clean and tidy if need be by hiring additional vehicles and infrastructure. Contingency plans should be prepared for proper upkeep of the city, including house-to-house collection of garbage, lifting and transportation.
The closure of parks should continue and the Transport department had been asked to ensure that no private transport operators like Uber/Ola, autorickshaws plied on the roads except for transport of passengers for accessing emergency medical services. The norm for allowing one person on two-wheeler and two persons in four-wheelers should be strictly adhered to.
The guidelines warned that violation of social distancing norms at business establishments during the lock down period was punishable under Sections 188, 269 and 270 of the IPC. Steps should be taken to continue the functioning of the Annapurna meal kiosks as they were essential and critical in this period.
Religious gatherings
The department had issued detailed guidelines for hotels and shops and establishments warning that stringent measures would be initiated against the violators. Restrictions on congregation of people were also applicable in religious places which were subject to restrictions of “public congregation” and “social distance” norms. It was the responsibility of the management committee of the religious place concerned to ensure that there was no mass gathering, more than five persons at a time, as well as strict observance of social distance protocol among the persons within their precincts.
