Thirty-three A.P. students, including five girls, who were returning home from Italy in the wake of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown but were stopped at Chhattisgarh border and kept in quarantine, are finally returning home.
The students are pursuing different courses in Milan and its surrounding areas.
With the help of BJP MP G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, they hired a bus in Delhi and started for home with a police escort.
The bus was to travel via Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha before reaching A.P. But at Chhattisgarh border, their vehicle was stopped by the local police and the students were shifted to a quarantine centre set up in a tribal welfare girls hostel at Chilipi.
”None of us tested positive, but we were asked to stay there as a precautionary measure,” said Venkata Sai Sanghamitra, a student pursuing Masters in Industrial Automation in University of Pavia.
Officials of the State spared no effort in helping them return home. A statement issued by the State Command Control Centre on Sunday said that Chief Secretary Neelam Sawhney took up the issue with Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy. DGP Goutam Sawang and Task Force Committee Chairman M.T. Krishna Babu coordinated with officials of that State, paving the way for their return on Monday.
