The Boat Club Resident Welfare Association (RWA) has written to Chennai Commissioner A K Viswanathan, requesting that the movement of outsiders be restricted into the upscale locality, in view of the pandemic. They have further requested that the residents be allowed to install a drop gate, as part of efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19, reports Times Now.
The letter was reportedly received by the Chennai police on May 27. The Boat Club area in Raja Annamalai Puram in Chennai, is considered to be amongst the city's posh areas with rocketing real estate value and influential residents. The area attracts minimal traffic and is well maintained owing to which, the city's residents near the locality choose to jog or walk through its roads. Boat Club is home to top business persons including India Cements owner N Srinivasan, Sun TV's Kalanithi Maran and brother and DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran and TVS Motors' Venu Srinivasan.
In the letter to the Police Commissioner, the President of the Boat Club RWA says, "Pursuant to the pandemic and lock down the non residents/ outsiders are increasingly using the Boat Club area for walking/jogging. We also find unknown cars are parked in odd timings. The outsiders are using the place for walking/jogging in groups and their health background is not known and we don't know whether they come from any isolated area. This is against the principle of social distancing under COVID norms."
It further suggests a physical barrier be installed to prevent movement.
"In the above circumstances we kindly request us to permit to install a drop gate and only permit the residents and their men so as to prevent any COVID issue that may arise due to this. Further we also request the same to be monitored. We look forward to receive your consent on this at the earliest and oblige," states the letter.
The RWA President Ravi Appasamy has signed the request. Other members include C Subbareddy, MV Subbiah, Gopal Sirinvasan, Chitra Srinivasan, Kamy Narayan, ME Shanmugam, Suresh Jagannathan and Maijo.
On Wednesday, Chennai recorded 1,012 new cases of COVID-19, with the city reporting over 1000 cases for the fourth consecutive day. This raises the total number of cases in the city to 25,872. A total of 11 more deaths were also reported, taking the total to 208.