Returnees oppose 14-day hotel quarantining in Bengaluru
Bengaluru: Hundreds of passengers returning from New Delhi in the first special train to Bengaluru on Thursday protested against 14-day institutional quarantining in hotels and hostels and insisted on going home.
Though 920 passengers, including women, children and senior citizens, boarded the superfast train in New Delhi on Tuesday night, 680 arrived here earlier in the day, as 240 of them alighted at 5-6 stations en-route.
To the shock and anger of returnees, the Karnataka health and civic officials told them, they would have to be in 14-day compulsory institutional quarantine before going home in the city or other places in the state.
“I was taken aback when the state officials insisted on me checking into a hotel or hostel for 14-day quarantine before going home after testing negative again,” a 26-year-old techie told IANS on phone from the city station.
The passengers are among thousands of Karnataka citizens, stranded over 50 days in other cities/states since the lockdown was enforced on March 25. The lockdown was extended twice on April 15 and May 4 to May 17 to contain the pandemic.
“I booked the ticket through the IRCTC website on May 11 to return home (Bengaluru) in the first available train on May 12 from Delhi. There was no alert or intimation by the railways or the state government till I arrived at the station that I would have to undergo 14-day quarantine though I am virus-free,” the techie said.
Echoing the techie, another passenger said he couldn’t afford to stay in a star or other hotel for 14 days at Rs 2,000 a day for the quarantine period as it would cost him Rs 28,000 and more for food and other expenses.
“As the railways and the state government had all our details, including name, age, gender and mobile number with IRCTC, its officials could have called or messaged us about the 14-day quarantine while we were in train to Bengaluru from New Delhi,” said Jayram Prasad, who too was stranded in the NCR due to the lockdown.
Declining to respond on officials’ failure and the communication gap, a zonal railway official said even the ticket checking staff told them (returnees) in the train that they would have to fill a self-declaration form with the state government on arrival in Bengaluru for the 14-day institutional quarantine even if they were asymptomatic.
“The 14-day institutional quarantine applies to all returning to the state by train, bus or flight. Train passengers are no exception to the standard operating procedure, issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs to all entering or exiting a state. Even migrant workers are going through the process,” a state health official told IANS.
Protests, sit-ins, demonstrations and heated exchanges were witnessed on the station platform between returnees and state officials over the mandatory quarantine.
While after sometime, around 500 returnees left the station to hotels and hostels in chartered buses, the state government arranged to ferry them for the quarantine, the others kept insisting on going home.
The Railway Protection Force (RPF) was present at the station to maintain order and guide the harried passengers, who insisted on quarantining at home, as many were from cities and towns across the state.