Seven persons have been booked while trying to escape from the Shramik Special train in Odisha’s Angul district.
The incident took place at Majhia, 10 km away from the district headquarters town of Angul on Sunday. Locals caught hold of seven persons and handed them over to the police. A few more have not been traced, they said. The migrant workers were coming from Ahmedabad to the Khurda road station.
According to government protocol, all returnees from the different States are to be directly taken to the quarantine centres where they have to spend the mandatory 21 days before undergoing home quarantine for another week.
People who got down in Angul were apparently trying to evade the mandatory quarantine period.
Deboard train
“When the train slowed down, seven persons belonging to the neighbouring Deogarh district deboarded and tried to flee,” said Jagmohan Meena, Angul Superintendent of Police.
Following the Aurangabad train accident, trains are being slowed down ahead of human habitations during their journeys.
Mr. Meena said all seven were sent to a nearby quarantine centre and they would be treated as arrested.
The police said they would be tried once normalcy is restored.
Meanwhile, several reports of returnees roaming in the open are coming from different districts. About 15 persons reportedly got down from a bus, which came from Tamil Nadu, at Cuttack on Monday and walked towards Jagatsinghpur district.
They accused the government machinery of not responding to their request of taking them to the quarantine centre.