Pune: Hinjawadi, Maan and Marunji - the Information Technology (IT) hub of Pune city – will be sealed again from Thursday (July 9) for eight days by the local administration. However, IT companies will continue to operate with their employees exempted from the lockdown. IT company employees and other staff will have to carry their identity cards to get road access to their companies.
The Gram Panchayat of Hinjawadi and other neighbouring villages had demanded that the local administration officials should seal the areas as the number of COVID-19 positive patients were increasing every day. District Collector Naval Kishore Ram too had declared that if five or more patients are found in any village or locality or building, then it will be declared as a micro-containment zone and sealed off. No movement of citizens or vehicles will be allowed from these areas during the lockdown. Based on these orders, the village heads and local administration officers decided to implement lockdown of eight days starting from July 9 in the three villages.
Maan Village Development Officer Bharat Patil said, “The number of Covid-19 positive patients has increased in the past few days. Even today (July 8) two more patients were found taking the tally to eight patients in just a few days. Administration and health officials are carrying out contact tracing of these people and further COVID-tests will be performed on them. Considering this situation, and as per the villagers’ demand, we agreed to implement strict lockdown from July 9 to 16 in Hinjawadi, Maan and Marunji villages.”
“Only essential and emergency services like medicals and hospitals, milk and grocery shops will be allowed to remain open. All other establishments will be closed in the area during the eight days lockdown period. We have exempted IT and software companies whose offices are in these villages. These IT company employees will have to show their identity card and then only they will be permitted to access the road. These employees should also follow all norms and should not roam around unnecessarily. This lockdown is being implemented with the cooperation of all villagers and professionals working in this area,” said Patil.
