Tamil Nadu builds wall to seal border with Andhra

Officials said thousands of patients from Andhra Pradesh go to Vellore for treatment at a cancer hospital there. Essential commodities like vegetables and groceries are also brought from Vellore to the border villages in Chittoor.

Authorities in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore have built a wall to seal a border crossing with Andhra Pradesh and prompted an angry reaction from their counterparts in Chittoor, who say the move will prevent essential travel between the two places including access to a cancer hospital. Officials in Chittoor called the move unwarranted since non-essential travel was already barred between the two districts because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Unconfirmed reports said similar attempts of constructing walls were being made at Settinthangal village along the Chittoor-Tiruthani state highway. (PTI file photo. Representative image)

Chittoor’s joint collector, D Markandeyulu, said inter-state borders remain sealed in view of the national lockdown to check the Covid-19 spread but vehicles carrying essential commodities were being allowed to move. “People are allowed to travel between states as there are always certain emergencies. The border check-posts are meant for that purpose. If state highways are blocked permanently by constructing walls, it will affect the emergency transport services,” he said.

Officials said thousands of patients from Andhra Pradesh go to Vellore for treatment at a cancer hospital there. Essential commodities like vegetables and groceries are also brought from Vellore to the border villages in Chittoor.

Chittoor is one of the worst Covid-19-hit districts with 73 of Andhra’s 1,177 cases as on Monday. Vellore has reported 22 of Tamil Nadu’s 1,885 cases.

Markandeyulu said the Vellore district authorities did not even consult them before taking such a “strange decision” to build the wall. “We would take it up with the Vellore district authorities to see that the wall is removed,” he said.

He added the wall was constructed even as there was no inter-state movement of vehicles or travelling due to the lockdown. “There is an inter-state check post between Vellore and Chittoor... construction of a permanent structure between the two states is something strange, unusual and unwarranted,” Markandeyulu said.

He said local revenue officials brought the construction of the 5 feet high a 3 feet wide wall into collector N Bharat Gupta’s notice on Sunday.

Unconfirmed reports said similar attempts of constructing walls were being made at Settinthangal village along the Chittoor-Tiruthani state highway.

Vellore collector, A Shanmugha Sundaram, said his district shares borders with Andhra Pradesh at six places. He added only two state highways were blocked with walls.

“We have done it only to prevent unauthorised travelling of people in view of the pandemic. The transport of goods or travelling of people in emergency situations can be done through alternative routes,” her said.

Sundaram said the walls were not permanent structures and were constructed only with hollow bricks which could be removed later.