Farm labourers refused entry to their village

KHAMMAM: Two farmers from Ananthasagar of Chintakani mandal in the district, who returned from Tenali town in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday, were not so welcome as they were refused entry to their village. Fearing that they may have been infected by Coronavirus, the villagers made the duo — Chintala Tata Rao, 40, and Pallapu Venkatesh, 19, — stay in a mango grove on the outskirts of the village even as they reiterated that they had no Covid-19 symptoms.

When the issue went viral on the social media on Thursday, District Collector RV Karnan ordered an inquiry into it.According to information, the two had left for Vadlamudi village near Tenali town in AP for painting work at Vignana University on March 17. After the Coivd-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown, they started back to their village on foot on April 27 and reached Khammam the next day. They then went straight to the district headquarter hospital and got tested for Covid.

They were asked to be under home quarantine by the healthcare workers.After the tests, they reached their village on April 29. The villagers informed about their return to the health officials and the village sarpanch, who visited the duo and asked them to leave their houses immediately worrying over Covid spreading in the village.“They asked us to stay in the mango grove. We were not even given drinking water. There were snakes and mosquitoes all around us,” they said and added, “We are human too and treat us like one.” It was learnt that after the inquiry ordered by the Collector, they were allowed to enter the village later in the day.