E-Paper
Quarantine centres in Odisha’s Ganjam under Section 144 over Covid-19 worry
The cases in the state touched 294 by Saturday evening, with hotspot Ganjam recording 94 cases, all returnees from Surat.
With cases inching close to 100 in the Covid-19 epicentre of Ganjam district, the Odisha government on Saturday imposed section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code around all quarantine centres in the district as reports of rule violations by migrant workers trickled in.
The cases in the state touched 294 - out of which 112 are from Surat - by Saturday evening, with hotspot Ganjam recording 94 cases, all returnees from Surat.
The other Covid-19 hotspots are Jajpur, Bhubaneswar, Balasore, Bhadrak and Rourkela. In other districts too cases are being reported as migrants from Surat are returning back to their homes.
Ganjam district collector Vijay Aamrita Kulange said Section-144 has been imposed around all Covid-19 medical camps/institutional quarantine centres where migrants have been housed by the government.
Kulange said no one will be allowed to enter within 100 m radius of the quarantine centres and directed the Superintendent of Police, Sub-Divisional Magistrates, Executive Magistrates and inspectors of police stations to keep a close watch on the centres.
The decision comes after a video of people violating the norms in quarantine centres went viral.
In one quarantine centre of Sergarh block housing, 80 migrant workers from Surat, their kin were seen delivering food and betel to the inmates at the gate violating social distance norms.
Earlier this week, 128 Surat-returned migrant labourers had fled from two Covid-19 quarantine centres in Beguniapada block in Ganjam district before they were caught.
The state government has also increased the quarantine period for returnees from 14 days to 28 days as many of the positive cases were found after the 14-day quarantine period.
“Returnees from other states will have to undergo an institutional quarantine of 21 days followed by home quarantine for next seven days,” said Odisha’s chief spokesperson on Covid-19, Subroto Bagchi.
The order came even as two persons died in two separate quarantine centres of Ganjam and Sonepur districts.
On Friday afternoon, a 40-year-old man who had returned from Surat and showed Covid-19 symptoms died before his swab sample could be tested; while in Sonepur, a migrant labourer from Bengal died in the quarantine centre Saturday morning. However, he did not show any Covid-19 symptoms.
Officials said Friday’s stay order by the Supreme Court on the Orissa High Court order of stopping travel of migrant workers without Covid-19 test in the originating state would lead to a massive surge in positive cases. On Thursday, the Orissa High Court had directed the state government to not let migrant workers board trains to Odisha without testing them for Covid-19.
Over 46,000 people have returned to Odisha from different states and another five lakh migrants are expected to turn up. On Saturday, 5 special trains carrying migrants left for Odisha from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The trains will reach Odisha on Sunday.
