All is not well at Delhi's Narela quarantine centre: Cops

NEW DELHI: Inmates of the Narela quarantine centre, one of the bigger ones in northern India, have been raising concerns about the lack of proper facilities though this has been disputed by Delhi government officials. About 1,170 people have been accommodated in 625 DDA apartments at the facility. Out of this, about 1,000 are from the Nizamuddin Markaz.
The facility, which was started on March 18, initially housed 255 people, mostly foreigners.Between March 31 and April 1, one thousand and six people from the Markaz were brought here. The apartments can accommodate 2,500 people, but but more than half of them are not furnished.
Sources at the centre say that apart from the lack of proper food, residents have been raising concerns about sanitation facilities and water supply that is scarce. The inmates are seen lining up for drinking water and food. There is also a lack of PPE suits, with none provided to the people deployed for security. Cops guarding the centre have been earlier doing with raincoats which can be reused after washing.
On Sunday, Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat had visited the facility. Due to lack of doctors, the Army has been sending their medical teams.
A police officer working at the quarantine centre claimed that food, hygiene and sanitation are major problems being faced by the inmates and it has been brought to the notice of the authorities. The officer pointed out that the queue for collecting food and water is long which defeats the entire objective of isolation. The centre is also short of staff.
“People living here complain of both quantity and quality of food. One of the inmates complained that only ‘10 spoons of rice’ was served to them. Some said they stay hungry as the quantity is not enough and asked if they could order from an online food delivery service,” an officer said on the condition of anonymity.
Another officer said since bathrooms are choked, sometimes water reaches the corridors, making them non-usable. Some of the foreign inmates have posted complaints that there were no western style lavatories available in their section of the centre.
An assistant commissioner of police, an inspector and 70 other police officers have been deployed for security and safety of the inmates. They say the civic authorities had not provided them masks, sanitizers, PPE suits and gloves. “We had to approach our senior officers and Delhi Police had to procure the suits from elsewhere and provide it to us. Initially, we were using raincoats as PPE suits since we can wash them and re-use them. The department could arrange for 10 PPE suits with limited resources and we are using them in turns while going inside,” an officer stationed at the quarantine centre said.
The cops complain that they don’t have proper details of the persons who are residing at the centre, raising a security concerns. “It is difficult to verify the antecedents of the suspects from the details. We have to use technical means to track them down,” said a police officer.
There are three entry and exit gates but currently only one of them is operational.