mid-day impact: New SOP for travellers landing in Mumbai from abroad

Reported by Diwakar Sharma Shirish Vaktania and Samiullah KhanAfter midday exposed corrupt practices by civic workers dealing with international travellers arriving in the city from highrisk zones the BMC on Tuesday revamped its rules for the mandatory sevenday institutional quarantine of such travellers The civic body says passengers will now be identified wardwise It has also tied the loose ends over the transfer of passengers to hotels Officials will now visit the hotels twice to check if any traveller is missing from there said the corporationThis international passenger light blue Tshirt and mask was dropped off at Dadar on April 3 instead of a 7day quarantine PicSatej ShindeA weeklong investigation by this newspaper had shown that some travellers coming from the UK Europe the Middle East and South African had managed to evade the compulsory isolation by bribing BMC officialsAfter promising to take serious action the BMC has issued a circular saying a standard operating procedure is required SOP for efficient handling and transporting and checking of the international passengersAcknowledging middayrsquos investigation a press note signed by the additional municipal commissioner projects says ldquoThere have been some complaints with regard to malpractices with respect to quarantining of passengers in hotelsrdquoOn the new SOP it says ldquoAirport team deployed for handling international passengers inside the airport terminal shall prepare wardwise list along with all details of passengers sent to hotel quarantine every day Airport team shall email the passengers list with all details everyday to all the concerned AssttCommissioner EHOThe SOP for transporting passengers to hotels for quarantine too has been overhauled According to the new SOP ldquoAirport team deployed outside airport terminal shall take the passengers according to their chosen hotel to the allotted BEST bus and hand over passengers along with the list to the concerned BEST driver The BEST driver shall drop the passengers to their chosen hotel and obtain acknowledgement from the said hotelrdquoIt says the BEST driver ferrying the passengers will hand over the acknowledgement from the hotel to the airport coordinating officer who will crosscheck the dataTo ensure the passengers remain in the hotel after checking in the SOP says the assistant commissioner concerned will form teams to monitor passengers staying in hotels in their jurisdiction as per the list received from the airportldquoAfter receipt of the detailed list from the airport team the team appointed by Asstt Commissioner shall visit the quarantine centre and verify whether the passengers have actually reached the quarantine centre and are adhering to quarantine rules Such checking shall be carried out at least twice during the quarantine period of the passenger preferably 2nd and 6th dayrdquoIn case of any violation action will be taken under the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 and the Disaster Management Act 2005 says the circular It also says senior officials will periodically review the working of the teams ldquoThe team shall prepare a weekly report of the checking of the quarantine centre and submit the report to the concerned zonal Deputy Municipal Commissioner and Additional Municipal Commissioner Projects P Velrasurdquo adds the circularldquoThe Standard Operating Procedure shall come into force with Immediate effectrdquo said P Velrasu