Maharashtra: 19 walk away from quarantine over poor facilities, return on being booked by cops

NAGPUR: Nineteen inmates of a Covid quarantine centre in Ghatanji taluka of Yavatmal district walked out on Saturday, and went back home to Ambadi village, around 10km away.
They returned after police registered offences against them, and claim to have left because of poor facilities at the centre.
The group had been found positive after a testing camp was held at their village. They were sent to the premises of an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) at Ghatanji, which has been converted into a quarantine centre. However, all 19 of them went back home the same day. They only returned after police action was taken and offences registered against them.
One of the inmates TOI spoke to said they had left the centre because of poor facilities. He also stressed that none of them had escaped but openly walked out without any resistance, due to confusion on whether it was mandatory for them to stay there or not.
“We had reached the centre voluntarily on our motorbikes instead of being taken there, and we rode back on the same. There was utter confusion, there were no beds or any other arrangement. There was an impression that we don’t need to stay there, so we went back. Now we have ended up with offences slapped against our names by the police,” said Yashwant Rathore, one of those now back at the centre.
“We only realized that something has gone wrong when news about us started doing the rounds,” he said.
Sanjay Dambhare, a local resident and Kisan Congress leader, said a camp was held at the village in which 230 persons were tested, out of whom around 20 were found positive. One more round of tests had been held before that too.
Dambhare says the situation is bad in the area. There are still a number of patients who are not coming out to get tested. There may be a number of homes having patients with fever and cough, but they are simply avoiding tests. There is a general reluctance towards getting vaccinated also, he said.
Devanand Pawar, a Congress leader from Yavatmal said patients in the rural areas need to be put in quarantine centres instead of being confined at home. The idea of home quarantine would not work in villages as houses are small with hardly one odd room. Pawar also too did not rule out the possibility of hidden cases in the villages.
Gram sevak Santosh Mahure, however, said the cases have now been identified after the two testing camps and things are under control.