The Pullur Toll Gate police check post on the Andhra Pradesh-Telangana border near Kurnool-Jogulamba Gadwal resembles the Wagah-Attari border (that separates India and Pakistan) in Punjab, if the passionate and tearful pleas of families and attendants of patients desperate to enter Telangana to take their COVID-19-affected loved ones is any indication.
Failing to control their emotions and helplessness to cross the Pullur checkpost to take their critically ill patients to Hyderabad because they did not have a proper e-pass and permits from the Hyderabad hospital for admission, a distraught man vented his anger at the Telengana and Andhra governments.
“Standing near the ambulance, which was stopped at the Pullur check post for over two hours. This place was very much part of united Andhra Pradesh till a few years ago. In this hour of medical crisis, can’t the two governments coordinate and allow our beloved ones to travel for better treatment?” the youth, who did not wish to identify himself, said.
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“Is that checkpost in Pakistan? It is very much in India... then why are we being penalised and stopped? Who will own responsibility if my relative dies?” he questioned.
A moving video of a young Muslim woman with tears and folded hands seen making a fervent appeal to save her husband touched every one.
“Sir, I had taken my husband with severe breathlessness to a Tirupati hospital. We could not find any ventilator bed. With no hopes, I have pledged my house to save my husband. I am rushing to Hyderabad for treatment in the hope that some hospital will have an ICU bed with ventilator. We have oxygen for only two hours and that too is getting finished. Sir, please save my husband,” she cried out.
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Prabhakar Reddy, a patient from Kurnool, who had a valid e-pass issued by the A.P. government, told the media that he was waiting in his vehicle from 10 a.m. to be allowed entry into Telangana.
“It is hell out here. They are not giving any information nor allowing us to cross the toll gate. I have valid admission confirmation from a corporate hospital in Hyderabad,” Mr. Reddy lamented.
At Ramapuram Cross Roads near Kodada on the Krishna-Suryapet district border, the same situation prevailed, with patients attendants almost falling at the feet of the police to save the lives of their near and dear ones. The same was the case at the Wadapally check post on Guntur-Nalgonda border too.