While the inter-State border in Athibelle along Hosur-Karnataka border remains fortified, with the Karnataka police disallowing entry into that State even for those with e-passes with the exception of those willing to undergo institutional quarantine, the rules are clearly not the same for the entrants from Karnataka into Tamil Nadu.
Hotspots
Krishnagiri district has seen scores of fresh arrivals, mostly residents, who had travelled into Karnataka during the lockdown or were stranded in hotspots such as Chennai.
Various parts of Krishnagiri town, in the past week, has seen a host of fresh arrivals. Most of them are residents returning home with the easing down of the lockdown. However, fresh arrivals in certain parts of the town have not witnessed follow up by authorities.
The practice followed is that of “self-reporting” of new arrivals as opposed to follow up by authorities who are meant to co-ordinate with the staff monitoring the border checkposts.
However, self-reporting even for home quarantine is seen to be less effective. Over the last two months, the control room has received 37 calls self-reporting arrivals, while 532 were calls made by neighbours alerting authorities to new arrivals. In the last week, with the ease up on the restrictions, the control room has received 45 calls, none self-reported.
A revenue official in charge of contact tracing told The Hindu that the officials were relying on e-passes, where the data is passed onto the control room and from there the local team is alerted.
Institutional quarantine
“Based on e-passes, we have quarantined 1,052 persons from other States, and 3,483 persons from other districts. We insist on institutional quarantine of seven days for entrants from Maharashtra,” said the official.
However, no such quarantine is mandated for those entering from hotspots such as Chennai. “It is difficult to verify and detect, when people travel in their own vehicles,” says the official.
The porous nature of the border screening was evident, when the district reported its first two cases of COVID positive cases.
The two persons had returned from Maharashtra in a hired vehicle during the third week of April and reached their home in a gated community in Hosur in the early hours of the morning. They had managed to get past the checkpost with the Maharashtra registration plate.
However, the residents of the gated community woke up to see a car with the registration plate and alerted the authorities.
The District Collector S. Prabhakar told The Hindu that there were ample communications in this regard to the public to self report their arrivals into the district.
Toll free number
Further to the communication, the Collector issued a fresh release urging the public to call 04343-230044; 04343-234444 and the administration’s toll free number 1077.
