This story is from April 19, 2020

SMC staffers from Navsari harassed

SMC staffers from Navsari harassed
Surat: Navsari has remained free of COVID-19 despite its proximity to Surat. However, rapid rise in positive cases through local transmission in Surat has started to give sleepless nights to authorities in Navsari. Their fear has begun to result in mistreatment of their own citizens for fear from spread of infection in Navsari.
Parimal Naik, a senior health officer employed with Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), was told by policemen at Maroli checkpost to stay at home because there were chances of his bringing coronavirus from Surat to Navsari.

Naik, a resident of Khakhwada village in Navsari’s Gandevi taluka, travels to Surat in his car on daily basis.
Like him, hundreds of people employed with SMC and state government departments in Surat from Navsari are facing harassment at the hands of police and others, sources said.
Navsari administration’s fear has become pronounced after it urged SMC authorities to provide accommodation to their employees shuttling between Navsari and Surat daily.
In a letter to SMC authorities on April 16, Navsari district collector Ardra Agarwal stated that many people from Navsari town and nearby talukas work in sanitization and health departments of SMC and they travel for work to Surat on daily basis. These employees should be given accommodation at their headquarters to reduce threat of local transmission of contagious disease in Navsari.

Agarwal has said, “State government’s revised guidelines issued on April 15 bans inter-state and inter-district movement of people, except in special cases. Representations have been received from elected representatives of the region to stop movement of people going for work to Surat.”
Meanwhile, Surat Municipal Employees’ Staff Union (SMESU) has also demanded accommodation and other facilities for SMC employees coming from other districts.
SMESU president Iqbal Shaikh said, “SMC employees in Navsari are facing harassment from police at Maroli and Tata High School checkposts. Our employees are stopped at the checkpoints and advised to stay at home. Thus, we have urged municipal commissioner to provide accommodation to about 2,500 employees of the civic body who are frontline staff of health and sanitization departments.”
Municipal commissioner Banchanidhi Pani told TOI, “I don’t want to comment on the issue. Navsari district collector should write to state government and not to us on this.”
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About the Author
Vijaysinh Parmar

Vijaysinh Parmar is principal correspondent at The Times of India, Rajkot, and reports on the Saurashtra and Kutch regions. Apart from regular assignments in Rajkot, he travels extensively in rural area to report on the "other Gujarat". He reported on the drinking water crisis in interiors of the state in 2008, forcing the government to swing into action. He has also reported on the practice of untouchability still prevalent in parts of Gujarat.

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