The police in Bongaigaon district of western Assam on Saturday intercepted a container truck from West Bengal and detained 51 people, mostly migrant workers, who were travelling in it.
They managed to elude the police and health officials at Srirampur, 80 km west on the Assam-West Bengal border, where every individual entering Assam has to undergo a mandatory medical test for COVID-19.
The police said the 51 people are from various districts of Assam, and it was not immediately known where they had come from. The truck bore an Uttar Pradesh registration number.
Bongaigaon Deputy Commissioner Lakshmi Priya said the police had detained the people after intercepting the vehicle for a routine check. “The police have set up checkpoints at various places. The truck carrying these people was intercepted at one of these checkpoints,” she said.
The Deputy Commissioner said the people were provided with food and “other things” because they had been travelling for a while. She said they would be sent to a quarantine facility in Guwahati, distributed among a few vehicles for adherence to physical distancing norms.
