Telangana seals border with Maharashtra

Hyderabad: In the wake of an increase in Corona cases in Maharashtra, the Telangana government has closed the border with the neighbouring state. People from the Telangana border districts of Nizamabad and Adilabad, as well as other parts of the state, have been advised to postpone their visits to Maharashtra indefinitely. Unless there was some emergency, people coming from Maharashtra would not be permitted to enter Telangana, officials said.

But unlike in the past, no online passes need to be obtained from the police. Those intending to enter Telangana will have to produce documents like medical records to establish that it was a genuine emergency visit. The authorities have deployed Police, Revenue and Health officials at the check posts to monitor the movement of people closely from both sides of Telangana and Maharashtra.

People living in the border villages have been told not to visit the neighbouring villages since the number of Covid-19 positive cases were high. People with travel history between the two States were found to have tested positive in the bordering villages in Telangana.

At Salura check post in Nizamabad district, which connects Maharashtra via Aurangabad, travellers have been asked to show the certificate that they had taken both the doses of vaccine and also undergo rapid tests before entering Telangana.

The respective district administrations are keeping a close watch at Salabatpur check post in Kamareddy districts which connects Maharashtra and Karnataka, Boraj check post in Adilabad district on Nagpur highway, Vankhadi and Chandrapur checks posts in Asifabad – Komarambheem districts were also put on high alert.

It has come to the notice of the district authorities that citizens were taking a detour of 20 km before the Salura check post and entering Telangana via remote border villages. Reports said that some travellers were avoiding mandated preliminary medical tests who entered Telangana through backdoors. Officials said these people pose a big threat in spreading the virus in Telangana.

The teams would conduct surprise visits in the border villages to trace people who entered through backdoors. Majority of the travellers coming from one of the biggest industrial area Nagpur would be controlled at Boraj check post. Generally, vehicular movement is heavy on Nagpur highway and the officials are doing their best to screen the visitors. "Display of vaccination certificates is mandatory and rapid test is mandatory for every person who is traveling by their individual vehicles," officials said that bus services between the border districts and Maharashtra were suspended completely. Bus services from Hyderabad to Maharashtra were already stopped after the neighbouring state announced night curfew in December last week. Commercial transportation vehicles were exempted from the travel ban. All the drivers and other supporting staff in the heavy vehicles would have to undergo Covid tests before their entry into Telangana.