Despite surge in cases, AMC yet to update containment zones’ list

Despite repeated attempts, Additional Chief Secretary (Forest and Environment), Rajiv Kumar Gupta who is in-charge of Ahmedabad city for Covid-19 operations, was unavailable for comment.

NEARLY A month after the first six containment zones were declared in Ahmedabad city, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has not redrawn its zones despite more cases having been reported from the western parts of the city.

The active cases tally of the 10 existing containment zones on Wednesday was Khadia (339), Asarwa (213), Dariyapur (51), Jamalpur (341), Shahpur (220), Saraspur-Rakhiyal (234), Gomtipur (160), Danilimda (116), Behrampura (186) and Maninagar (243). However, the number of active cases in the existing containment zones are far lesser than non-containment zones.

Among the 38 non-containment zones out of the total 48 wards in the city, eight have a high number of active cases. These include Naroda (200), Vatva (150), Odhav (123), Amraiwadi (183), Navrangpura (123), Shahibaug (125), Vejalpur (111) and Nikol (104). Despite this, none of these wards have been contained and the number of red zones in the city remains ten.

For instance, Dariyapur in the central zone with only 51 active cases remains under containment, while Kubernagar in the north zone with 254 cases remains outside the red zone. As of Wednesday, Danilimda ward in the south zone has 116 active cases and is among the ten red zones. On the other hand, Naroda has 200 cases and has still not been declared as a containment ward. Similarly, Amraiwadi with 183 cases is not under containment, while Behrampura ward under containment has 186 cases. Saraspur-Rakhiyal with 234 cases in the north zone is a red zone, while Kubernagar and Bapunagar wards also in the north zone, have 254 and 241 active cases respectively, and are not under containment.

Despite repeated attempts, Additional Chief Secretary (Forest and Environment), Rajiv Kumar Gupta who is in-charge of Ahmedabad city for Covid-19 operations, was unavailable for comment. However, he had earlier told The Indian Express that containment zones would be reviewed on May 18, stating that the priority was to provide essentials for the residents of Ahmedabad.

AMC had announced three new wards under red zones on May 1 — Saraspur-Rakhiyal in the north zone with 93 cases, Asarwa in the central zone with 101 cases and Gomtipur in the east zone with 99 cases. Two days later on May 3, Maninagar had reported 125 positive cases and was the last ward to be added to the list of containment zones, taking their total number to 10.