33 Andhra Pradesh students to reach home today, month since leaving Italy

TNN | Apr 13, 2020, 04.30 AM IST

HYDERABAD: Almost a month after flying out of Covid-19-ravaged Italy, 33 Telugu students will be reaching their respective homes in Andhra Pradesh by Monday evening. The group, which includes five girl students, arrived from Italy on March 15 in Delhi.

They were immediately quarantined for 14 days at Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) camp at Chhawla. Then, they spent another 12 days there. The students, who started from Delhi on April 10 night for their homes, faced roadblocks. The bus they were travelling in was stopped in Chhattisgarh for alleged lockdown violations. They were taken to a government school and held there for a day. With the intervention of AP government and the Union home ministry, the bus was released on Sunday evening.

S Yugandhar Babu, a management student from Milan (Italy) and native of Nellore, spoke to TOI over phone from Chhattisgarh. “Around 7.00pm, we started from Chhattisgarh. I hope we will reach home by (Monday) evening. We have taken this route instead of the Nagpur one as some students hail from north districts like Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram,” he said.

Explaining their 27-day ordeal, Yugandhar Babu said, “We came from Covid-19 affected areas of Milan and northern regions of Italy by an Air India special flight. We landed on March 15 and we were not allowed even into the terminal building. Our immigration was cleared on the runway itself. Then, we were taken to ITBP camp at Chhawla and quarantined for 14 days.”

“Some of us didn’t eat properly in the last three weeks. One of the girls is just surviving on biscuits and water. We were tested daily. Our temperature and blood pressure readings were taken and stamped. On March 15 and March 29, all of us tested negative for Covid-19 and accordingly certified. ITBP brass has been asking us to leave the camp as they were expecting returnees from Afghanistan. We did not have money to individually hire taxis, which would cost around Rs 30,000 each. So, we took help of some friends, pooled money and then hired a bus,” he added.