Bihar villagers hand over city returnees to police

They are being taken away for medical tests

30/03/2020, PRESS TRUST OF INDIA , NEW DELHI/PATNA

Spreading caution: Residents of Kankarbagh spraying disinfectants in Patna on SundayRanjeet Kumar

Many of the thousands of jobless workers, marching from their workplaces to their native villages in States like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh hundreds of kilometres away amid the COVID-19 lockdown, are not being welcomed back home.

In many places in Bihar and elsewhere, those returning back home from even neighbouring countries such as Nepal and Bhutan were reported to the police, who, in turn, handed them over to medical authorities for tests. Some villages in Bihar have gone into lockdown, denying entry to people even from neighbouring areas.

“Four of my co-villagers working in Nepal returned home two days ago. But villagers informed the police about them following which they swooped on the village with ambulances and handed them over to the medical team,” a villager told PTI over phone from Alawalpur village near Patna.

In a similar case, nine people returning to their village Jamalpur, near Alawalpur, from Mumbai were handed over to the police and medical authorities, said Luv Singh of Jamalpur village.

“Yes, it’s true. Initially over 15 people coming from outside the State were reported to us by villagers and we handed them over to medical teams,” said Inspector Kumar.