How Covid has changed life equations at inter-state borders

Mangaluru: “I’m a doctor serving in a remote village in Kasaragod in Kerala for the last 39 years. My clinic is just 100 metres from Karnataka. Many patients come to my clinic from Karnataka. We are so far lucky as we have no Covid-19 cases reported here, but the lockdown has changed equations. Kerala police erected a barricade near my clinic and Karnataka police did it on their side, 200 metres away. We tolerated the hardship for more than 100 days, hoping we will see good times again,” lamented Dr Mohan Kumar Y S in a social media post.
Dr Kumar is a noted activist who fought for several social causes including the issues faced by endosulfan victims.
People living in the border villages of Dakshina Kannada and Kasaragod are suffering due to travel restrictions, even as Covid-19 cases continue to surge on both sides of the border.
Dr Kumar, who is serving at Swarga village in Kasaragod near the border, said that even after the central government ordered free movement of people, the barricades on both the sides are intact. “Both states have thousands of patients. Why are poor patients of our area made to suffer? Many aged parents are not able to see their kin for the last five months, and many others have suffered without jobs. We are not two different nations. We have our brothers and sisters on both sides,” he said.
“My father-in-law, aged 85, lives in Karnataka, but his exit road is in Kerala. The road is totally blocked by putting loads of mud. My mother-in-law is living with us after she became seriously ill. Now her husband can’t see her because we are in Kerala. She can’t consult a doctor in Mangaluru because, though she is from Karnataka, now she’s in Kerala. After making a lot of requests, the road on the Karnataka side has been opened, but it remains closed on the Kerala side,” he said, adding there are nearly 20 such border villages like Saradka, Bayar and Muligadde, to name a few, where people from both sides find it difficult to commute.
The Kasaragod district BJP Yuva Morcha and Congress have also requested that people be allowed to move between Kasaragod and Mangaluru. The BJP Yuva Morcha has planned a protest by removing the soil dumped to block border roads on Independence Day. Congress leader and Kasaragod ZP development standing committee chairman Harshad Vorkady said the Kerala-Karnataka border should be opened for people from both sides.