After several violations, BMC & Mumbai Police decide to ‘track’ people told to home quarantine

After multiple violations, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to take help from Mumbai Police and track the movement of the travellers who have been advised home quarantine.

After facing several cases of violation of 14-day- long home quarantine, authorities held a joint meeting on Thursday during which it was decided to track the movement of home quarantine people.

We have collected mobile numbers of everyone who has been advised home quarantine after screening them at the airport, said a senior BMC official, adding they are going to share their numbers with the police for tracking their locations using mobile GPS.

Last week, civic authorities started putting ‘home quarantine’ stamps on people arriving from abroad after undergoing mandatory screening process at the airport. A total of 1,383 people have been asked to home quarantine in Mumbai as of Thursday evening.

However, since the past few days, several cases of violations of home quarantine have come to fore in the city.

Highlighting that home quarantine people should avoid public transport and travel by private vehicles, BMC executive health director Padmaja Keskar said such persons are expected to act responsibly and avoid meeting people outside.

“If they need any help we can help them in arranging private vehicles and they can also stay in our quarantine facility or hotels,” Keskar said.

On Thursday, Western Railway de-boarded over 15 passengers from three trains, including six people from Saurashtra Express at Borivali station. Prior to that, four engineering students from Germany were de-boarded at Palghar station on Wednesday.

According to officials, the Mumbai Police are keeping a strict vigil on the people, who have been advised home quarantine and will also track them through GPS.

“We are keeping watch on the home quarantined people along with the BMC and on receiving complaints against them we will take suitable action against them,” a senior official was quoted as saying.

The home quarantined people should follow the guidelines issued by the authorities, he said, adding if anybody complaints against them, police can register an offence under section 188 of IPC (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant).

Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has risen to 18. Of them, nine are from Mumbai while the rest are from neighbouring Thane, Navi Mumbai, and Palghar areas.

The city witnessed its first coronavirus casualty after a 64-year-old man admitted at Kasturba Hospital succumbed to the deadly virus on March 17.