BENGALURU: Over 4,000 citizens from Bengaluru have volunteered to join ‘Home Quarantine’ squads, an initiative taken up by Karnataka recently to form a special task force that will rope in people to form ‘citizen quarantine’ squads. In no time, many volunteers registered to join the team headed by Captain P Manivannan, secretary, Animal Husbandry department, and in charge of the Home Quarantine squads. The squads get a list of people who are home-quarantined, and visit their homes to check if they are staying indoors or have violated norms.
If they are not found at home, they are booked for violating norms by the flying squad, which includes the police too. From mid-June till date, 84 FIRs were registered against those who violated norms. The team also puts up Home Quarantine (HQ) posters outside these houses to mark them. As of June 27, the total number of people in home quarantine in the State is 1,13,661. Bengaluru Urban has 65,560 citizens in home quarantine, the highest in Karnataka.
The citizen squads are divided into teams and a Telegram group is created in their respective wards with a team head taking charge. Another Telegram group includes the eight BBMP zonal officers and team heads, and alerts the members on day-to-day update on those violating quarantine norms. Subir Sehgal, Bengaluru citizen coordinator, said, “Once people register themselves, the teams are able to see the number of people in home quarantine in the Quarantine Watch app.
The person’s name and details are given and the team has to reach the spot and check on the patient. We make surprise visits. We stand outside the house and call the patient. If the patient comes out, we know that he/ she has not breached the rules.” A BBMP official said, “Home quarantine for 14 days is a must. If they breach rules, an FIR is filed.” Those who wish to join the squad can visit the website ww.quarantinesquad.in and register as a volunteer at register. quarantinesquad.in and join the local ward Telegram group.