Gurgaon, India: In wake of the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in the city, Gurgaon divisional commissioner Rajeev Ranjan on Tuesday asked the RWAs to maintain a record of residents traveling by air and share the same with the district administration and the health department.
In a meeting chaired by the divisional commissioner and attended by Gurgaon’s top officials, it was discussed that the RWAs should monitor air travelers so that steps can be taken to control the spread of Covid-19.
Meanwhile, residents, as well as RWAs, have raised questions on the implementation of the order as that would entail people having to share personal information, leading to concerns over violation of privacy.
“A resident is under no obligation to share his/her travel plan with the RWA, so, why would he/she do it? Moreover, no resident would want to share the information that their house will be vacant considering the number of robberies reported recently in our area. The district agencies should approach the airport authorities and get the data,” said Dhruv Bansal, spokesperson of Qutub Enclave RWA.
“At a time when the residents are not sharing information even after they test positive for Covid, how can we expect them to share their travel plan with the RWAs? When the administration came up with these directions, it should have come up with a proper plan as to how RWAs can maintain a record of air travelers,” said Rahul Chandola, RWA president of H-Block, DLF Phase-1.
The RWA representatives said that collecting data from air travelers will be difficult for RWAs to handle. “We can only share these directions of the administration with the residents and ask them to share their travel information voluntarily. It cannot be imposed on them,” said Manish Dhawan, RWA president of DLF Phase-2.
“As a resident, I would not want to share my travel information with the RWA before or after the travel. A better solution is to get this data from the airlines or ask DGCA to make it mandatory for airlines to collect this data and then share it with the district authorities. I don’t trust RWAs with my personal data,” said Prerna Sethi, a resident of Suncity.
Divisional commissioner Rajeev Ranjan was unavailable for comment. Notably, there are no written directions for RWAs as yet and these directions are not mandatory in nature.
In the meeting, RWAs were told to ensure that indoor gyms are avoided as much as possible. He also instructed the officials to keep an eye on social gatherings and take action against violators. Ranjan also appealed to the residents to avoid unnecessary travel, which is possible.
