ATHAGARH  : Irked over the district administration’s failure to collect swab samples for Covid-19 testing, inmates of temporary medical centres (TMCs) at Baselihata, Narsinghpur and Sharadhapur villages blocked the State Highway-65 between Khuntuni and Narsinghpur at three different places on Wednesday. The agitators said despite repeated appeals to the officials concerned, their swab samples have not yet been collected for testing.

A medical officer from Narsinghpur said the tests could not be conducted due to shortage of kits. However, Cuttack CDMO Dr Satyabrata Chhotray said the testing kits are supplied directly to quarantine centres and the health officials of Narsinghpur block may not have collected them on time. The protestors, who brought vehicular traffic on the State Highway to a halt for four hours, relented after Narsinghpur BDO Prasant Kumar Tarai and IIC Lingaraj Lenka assured them that the samples will be collected soon. Tarai said a few swab samples were collected from inmates of the TMCs in the afternoon. A similar agitation was staged by inmates Jamadeipur TMC in Tigiria block two days back when the protestors had blocked the same highway at Nuapatna.