Hyderabad:People from Maharashtra pose grave threat of virus spread

Hyderabad: The permission to allow inter-state passenger movement is giving jitters to the Telangana government. The major concern of the government is about those coming from Maharashtra. 

The experience in the last 24 hours indicates that even measures like having check-posts are not really effective to put a complete check on those who are coming by personal vehicles.

All the three corona check-posts set up at Adilabad and Nizamabad saw the flow of a large number of vehicles and it was a difficult task for the small number of staff manning these check posts to handle the rush.

The Penganga check-post on the National Highway 44 at Maharashtra border in Adilabad district witnessed serpentine queues of vehicles from morning. Those travelling by personal vehicles were subjected to thermal screening, verification of their identity, before permitting them to enter Telangana.

According to officials, a majority of them came from Nagpur. It may be mentioned here that Nagpur is among those cities which had witnessed a large number of corona cases.

Adilabad rural DSP Venkateshwarlu said the vehicular movement is heavy and the officials are doing their best to screen the visitors. The teams could not seek any health status reports except the examination of body temperature of the arriving passengers . At least 100 vehicles entered Telangana every hour on the busy Nagpur Highway.

At Saloor check-post in Nizamabad district, people coming from another commercially-rich Nanded district are giving a slip to undergo mandated checks. They took a diversion and covered additional 20 km and entered the state via remote border villages."Avoiding a mandated preliminary medical tests by some people who entered Telangana through backdoors poses a big threat as it could lead to a surge in Covid-19 cases. This sneaking in results in lack of information about their whereabouts and health conditions.

After the Telangana government permitted free flow of inter-state passenger transportation, officials said that the number of officials deployed at the check-post at Salabathpur in Nizamabad district has been reduced. Only police and health officials were performing duties. Revenue and transport officials were relieved from duties.

As a result, personal and vehicle verification has been stopped at other check-posts. However, the officials of the TS government have now taken up the issue with the Maharashtra government. They want that the entry points into TS in the border villages should be sealed so that people will not be able to sneak in avoiding the corona check-posts.