Denied entry into Goa, family of three lives at Karnataka checkpost

POLEM: For five days now, 34-year-old Meet Kaur has been spending her nights sleeping just metres away from the Karnataka border checkpost at Polem. She and her brothers, Karamdip and Karamjit Singh, eat food from the packets provided by Karnataka police. Meet spends her days trying to plead with the authorities to help her cross the border into Goa, weeping hysterically at her fate every now and then.
While being raised in Goa and still a teenager, Meet found herself orphaned following the sudden death of her parents. The three siblings have not known what it’s like living anywhere else, until this January, when Meet briefly moved to Kerala for work.
“I am well known among the entire biker community as a much sought-after mechanic for Royal Enfield bikes. Look to what state I have been reduced to here. I was called to Kerala for short-term assignments and moved there in January with my brothers with the intention of returning to Goa once I am done with the work at hand. Suddenly the coronavirus cases in Kerala began rising and now we want to return home to Goa,” said Meet, pointing to the trio’s Aadhar cards and other documents, which indicate an address in Santa Cruz.
Karamdip said, unable to afford a home, they had been living in rented premises all their life and are now being denied entry into Goa with no permanent address to call home.
“Goa is home for us. It is where we are most comfortable. We were orphaned as children and had a hard life because of which we could not educate ourselves. Now the authorities are asking us to fill different forms, which is Greek to us. No one is showing us the way forward. I am crying seeing my sister wailing in pain,” said Karamdip.
The siblings said they already had a difficult journey back towards Goa through different police checks and hitching rides, only to sleep out in the open at Polem.
“When we left for Kerala, we had to give up our rented place as we did not know the definite time period of the job for which I was hired. We do not have an address to tell the authorities, that is our only fault. If we are refused entry in Goa, where we have always lived, where are we to go? They should tell me where I belong, if not here,” said Meet.