Telangana mulls closing Maharashtra borders

Hyderabad: In the wake of increasing positive cases of coronavirus, the Telangana government is considering the closure of all its borders with other states as a precautionary measure.

The government has taken serious note of the growing number of positive cases in Maharashtra in the last two days and the border between the two states will be closed in two or three days depending on the severity of the situation, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said. Speaking to newsmen at Pragathi Bhavan here on Saturday, the Chief Minister said that people living in the border districts of Adilabad and Nizamabad visit Maharashtra frequently to meet their family members and the threat of spread of the virus to Telangana is not ruled out.

The only measure before the government is to stop the movement of people from one state to the other by halting the entire transport system.

The TS government will hold talks with Maharashtra and take a decision on the closure of the border soon, the Chief Minister said that the spread of virus in other border States of Karnataka and Chhattisgarh is also under close watch by the Telangana government. If necessary, all the Telangana borders will be closed.

KCR said that 58 inter-state border check-posts were already opened, and 78 joint teams were conducting inspections regularly. If required, bus services to other states will be suspended, he added.