Getting quarantined is sort of a forlorn experience. But for the Chittoor-based migrant workers who returned from Mahahrastra, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Rajasthan, housed in the quarantine centres at Kanipakam, Gangavaram, Baireddipalle and Palamaner, it turned out to be a memorable experience, thanks to the gesture of the police personnel, who presented gift-boxes to their children, in addition to soothing words to overcome their traumatic condition wreaked by the COVID-19 lockdown.
When Superintendent of Police S. Senthil Kumar along with Deputy SP (Chittoor) K. Eshwar Reddy arrived at the quarantine centre at Kanipakkam, where 139 workers from Nindra, Nagari, Vijayapuram, Nagalapuram and Nagari mandals are accommodated, fear gripped the inmates that they would be shifted to isolation or some other quarantine facility.
Much to their surprise, the SP asked the migrant families to be ready to get gift-boxes for their children. Each box contained chocolates, biscuits, small toys, drawing pencils and crayons along with slates and stationary. For the elderly, sweets and fruits were distributed. As and when the children received the gifts, they turned busy with the gifts.
As many as 131 migrant workers with their children reached Kanipakam quarantine facility from Maharashtra on May 23, and the samples collected from them were sent for tests in Tirupati. The inmates were worried that they might be sent to isolation any time, and that the virus would paralyse their lives further.
When some women workers broke down before him, Mr. Senthil Kumar asked them not to panic about coronavirus, besides allaying their fears about isolation if any of them tested positive. He said nutritious food had been provided to them and their children at the quarantine centres, and they could soon return to their homes in tune with the COVID-19 guidelines.
The SP also extended the gift boxes to all the children at the quarantine centres in Chittoor, Puttur and Palamaner police sub-divisions.
