Odisha to take only COVID negative travellers back

BENGALURU: While West Bengal had a problem receiving migrants returning by train earlier this week, it is now Odisha’s turn. The Odisha High Court on Thursday ordered that only passengers who have proof of testing negative for Covid-19 should be allowed to board trains entering Odisha.

The Karnataka Nodal Officer wrote to his counterpart in Odisha on Thursday asking the eastern state to receive 16 trains with migrants at Bhuvaneshwar. With a considerable number of people from Odisha employed in Karnataka, the state had chalked out plans to despatch around 19,000 passengers.

The first train from Bengaluru left from Chikkabanavar to Bhuvaneshwar on May 3. TNIE has a copy of the order by Judges S Panda and K R Mohapatra which states, “The state government should ensure that all migrants who are in queue to come to Odisha should test negative for Covid-19 before boarding (trains).” It becomes the responsibility of the receiving state to carry out checks when passengers alight there. “Whether to let them off, recommend home quarantine if they were asymptomatic or recommend those who are in a serious conditions, it is fully their lookout.

This has put many state governments on the backfoot as they have to deal with thousands of people returning to a specific city, not just from Karnataka, but from many parts of the country,” he said. A railway official confirmed the development. “We cannot go ahead with any plans to run trains to Odisha until we get the clearance from its state nodal officer,” he said. A state government official, added that the Odisha government was contemplating moving the Supreme Court in this connection shortly. Asked if medical tests could be done in Karnataka, another official said, “We are extremely busy planning and running operations. How can we get into such aspects now? Just not possible.”