Residents of Harmu Housing Colony and AG Cooperative Colony are concerned over youths from Hindpiri, a sealed Covid-19 containment zone, breaching the lockdown by crossing the Harmu rivulet.

The rivulet, which separates the Harmu Housing and AG Cooperative colonies from Hindpiri, is easy to cross especially in summer.

“The rivulet is shallow and barely 50-foot wide,” a resident of Harmu said. “So youths from Hindpiri tend to cross it and come over to Harmu and AG colonies and just roam around. Harmu Housing Colony is a residential area with a population of over 1 lakh. If Covid-19 spreads here, it would be a big problem.”

Another resident said fruit and vegetable vendors come from Hindpiri area for business.

“As it is a question of basics, people generally keep mum but the issue (of transmission of the infection) is serious,” Kumar said.

The areas of Harmu Housing Colony fall under wards 25 and 26 of the Ranchi Municipal Corporation.

Councilor of ward 26, Arun Kumar Jha, said he and his counterpart in ward 25 Arjun Ram had jointly informed chief minister Hemant Soren about the lockdown breach on Twitter.

“We tweeted the chief minister and also informed the state president of the main Opposition party (the BJP), Deepak Prakash, to look into the matter and ensure that the problem is solved. Until police are deployed on the borders of Harmu close to Hindpiri it will be difficult to stop the movement of youths as there are still many who are taking the threat of the novel coronavirus lightly,” Jha said.