pigeons

Pune Municipal Corporation

PMC

Residents of Rakshak Nagar Gold and Tanishq societies (above) say they live in fear; they feel inhabitants of the quarantine building roam around, leave infected food on window sills (L); PIC: NIKHIL GHORPADE

Information Technology

Magarpatta

Residents fear pigeons will carry the virus

Naidu Infectious Diseases

Ruby Hall Clinic

Given the recent spike in suspected cases of COVID-19, after receiving a list of hundreds of potential carriers of the infectious disease just weeks ago,) had identified a quarantine facility at a sports complex near Rakshak Nagar in Kharadi, where a majority of the said group — mostly travellers to the city — was rapidly quarantined. Adding suspected cases from other parts of the city to this tally, the number of people to be quarantined here rose to at least 112, including some foreign nationals, mostly from African nations.But the quick tracing and isolation of these suspected carriers has not sparked relief, but instead led to unexpected turmoil in the complexes surrounding the building in which they are now housed.In the past 15 days, at least half of the residents of two adjacent societies — Rakshak Nagar Gold and Tanishq societies — have either chosen to shift to other rented accommodation in the same area as paying guests or fled to their native places by obtaining special permission.Most of the residents in these upscale complexes work at Kharadi’s EONPark, World Trade Centre,City and Zensar Technologies.According to them, the newly created quarantine facility is located bang in the middle of a residential zone, where a population of over 3,000 people lives across 700-odd flats — and they believe they are all in imminent danger from the possibility of COVID-19 in their general vicinity.In the last fortnight, these irate inhabitants have written more than 70 e-mails to the municipal commissioner as well as the district collector, demanding that the quarantine facility be shifted away from the densely populated area. They have a long list of reasons they are under threat, including the fact that they share a common wall with the isolation facility and live just 20 metres away from suspected patients, or the fear that pigeons roosting in the building’s windows will carry the viral infection to their balconies and grills.Further, they claim that quarantined persons keep roaming around the area and also spitting and throwing waste food out of open windows, or piling up dirty containers on the sills, from where rock pigeons may get infected detritus stuck to their wings and feet. In the support of these accusations, residents have also submitted photographs in their emails.Speaking to Mirror, Rakshak Nagar Gold housing society chairman Santosh Bharne said, “Every alternate day, quarantined patients are emerging as COVID-19 positive. We are under tremendous stress of getting infected. With neither PMC nor the collector responding to our communications, half our residents have simply fled. Such quarantine facilities should be away from the city. We are really disappointed as to how a densely populated area was elected for this purpose. There are several vacant buildings near Sassoon General Hospitals andHospital that can be used instead. This building was earlier declared to be just for housing healthy quarantine patients, but now it has turned into a COVID-19 testing facility and swab collection centre, too.”Another resident, Satish Khandve, said, “We share common walls and there is hardly a 20-metre distance from their windows to us. People stayingin wings facing towards the facility have stopped using their air conditioners in this heat. Children are stopped from playing in the balcony or on terraces. Does PMC wish to cure these people or pass the infection to us?” Added resident Sanjay Patil, “Rock pigeons keep fluttering from their windows to ours. Infected spit or food particles may come to us through these birds. Now, most of us just plan to go from here and stay elsewhere as paying guests because we fear for our lives.”He also said, “Moreover, ambulances keep coming here day and night. The unbearable noise of sirens disturbs our sleep. Many senior citizens and newborns stay in these societies. Those who could afford to have left the premises. Now, we are expecting some early intervention by the authorities.”Asked about this barrage of complaints, municipal commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad was of the opinion that these residents need counselling and a more humane outlook. He told Mirror, “I have received communication from these society residents. It is true that there is some proximity with the quarantined facility, but we are taking all precautions to avoid passing of any kind of infection. There are many other are people and societies nearand Naidu hospital. They do not have any such objections. There is a need to think about this on humanitarian grounds at the moment. We will conduct counselling sessions for these residents and try to eradicate their misunderstandings.”