Nagpur: About 2,800 passengers coming to the city in 22 trains every day are from the five most affected states — Delhi-NCR, Kerala, Gujarat, Goa and Rajasthan. After a mere formality of thermal scanning, they are joining the local population in the city where the administration and police are struggling to enforce restrictions.
In the past, passengers coming in trains from the five affected states were being scanned by a joint team of railways and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) who also conducted rapid antigen tests of the symptomatic ones.
The screening of passengers had simultaneously started in the railways, airports and the state borders following an order from the state government in November last year. Later, the order got diluted as the state government did not follow up on the same front in the subsequent guidelines.
Apart from the airports, the screening systems in the railways and on roads had reduced to mere formalities. It’s learnt that many passengers in trains resort to trickery of consuming paracetamol tablets to conceal symptoms.
Around a fortnight ago, NMC had withdrawn its manpower from the railway station to concentrate on the ongoing vaccine and testing drives. At present, the medical team of railways are conducting thermal scanning.
CS Rao, assistant commercial manager of Central railway, who also holds the charge of public relations, said, “If any passenger is found symptomatic by our team, then they are referred to the medical authorities concerned. We have only one entry and exit on either side where the passengers are scanned by the railway team,” he said.
Munucupal commissioner Radhakrishnan B said he intends to take up the issue of effective screening of epassengers with the railway authorities (divisional railway manager) at the earliest and also contemplate giving them rapid antigen test kits. “We had started screening of railway passengers but had to re-direct manpower for other priorities. But, railway authorities can be always requested to make the exercise fruitful,” he said.
Sources in Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) said though the services to-and-from Madhya Pradesh have been suspended, two buses from Hyderabad and another five from Adilabad are operating. A few mor are operating to-and-from Rajnandgaon and Raipur in Chhattisgarh.
Sources said around 600 trips of buses with full seating capacity are under way from the four cities and equal numbers of depots in rural districts ferrying around 30,000 passengers. “Though no standing is allowed, the passengers can still beside each other. We try to remind them to wear masks and use sanitizers repeatedly,” said a source.