Coronavirus: Jharkhand residents in Karnataka under virtual lockdown

RANCHI: Two days after the Karnataka government ordered closure of public places in view of the outbreak of Covid-19, students and professionals from Jharkhand, who are either studying or working in Bangalore and other parts of the southern state, are in a virtual lockdown there as they find all trains to home full and flight fares, which have increased manifold, beyond their reach.
Following the death of a septuagenarian in Kalaburgi district out of several positive cases of Covid-19, the Karnataka government had on Friday ordered closure of schools, colleges, malls, multiplexes, exhibitions, pubs and all public gatherings till further notice. The notice formally came into effect from Saturday.
On Sunday, many from Jharkhand rued of experiencing problems in trying to return home. With only a limited number of trains between the two states, many of them told TOI that black-marketeers have taken over sale of train tickets.
Sandeep Kumar, a third-year student of M S Ramaiah College of Engineering, said, "My parents have asked me to return after the Karnataka government's orders, but till today, I haven't been able to get a train ticket. The flights are too costly for me to afford."
Barkha Mishra, a fourth-year law student at BMS College of Law, who managed to return to Ranchi by flight on Sunday, said, "I paid around Rs 11,000, which is double the normal price. The government must take action against flight operators for such exorbitant prices at the time of emergency."
Akash Singh, a second-year MBA student of Christ University, said, "My friend and I paid double the price of AC 3-tier tickets which we got from an agent. We will be travelling to Ranchi on Tuesday."
With travel between the states becoming a costly affair, many have chose to work from home. A Ranchi-based employee with a consultancy firm, Kumar Shantanu, said, "I will be working from home from Monday for the next two weeks."
Some trapped in Karnataka also demanded that railways run special trains. Santosh Kumar of Lohardaga, working in an IT company in Bangalore, said, "The railways should operate special trains to facilitate return of passengers. For us in the technological field, there is a slight compensation as we can even work from our homes in Jharkhand but not everyone can have that facility."