Neelu Ranjan, New Delhi. The Central Government’s efforts to bring the economy back on track and the challenge of the State Governments to deal with the rising patients of Corona has brought the common people in a dilemma. Different states are adopting different criteria such as home quarantine and institutional quarantine, from the relaxation of the home of the passengers after thermal screening at the railway station or airport. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri has made it clear that the use of the Arogya Setu App is clear that there is no reason to prevent healthy people from coming and going, but many state governments are not ready to accept it.
When the central government announced limited resumption of rail services from Monday and June 1, people were expected to move from one place to another to meet their loved ones and work. Railways and aviation companies also started their bookings and people also cut tickets. To prevent the spread of corona, the center issued guidelines to allow only those passengers who do not have fever or any other symptoms of corona, making thermal screening mandatory at airports and railway stations. It also includes advice on using the Arogya Setu app.
Apparently, the central government is trying to revive the wheel of a closed economy for two months and normalize life, but the state governments struggling with Corona are not ready to let people come from other states without any hindrance. Huh. The bigger problem is that there is no uniformity among the states. Relying on the screening done by the railways and the airport, the country’s capital Delhi has given passengers complete freedom to travel anywhere.
At the same time, Punjab and Jharkhand have made Institutional Quarantine mandatory for all travelers coming from outside. This means that such people will be placed in a quarantine center after arriving at the destination. Meanwhile, a Maharashtra government official has said that there has been no change in the state following the lockdown order issued on May 19. As such, no air service is allowed in the state except for essential services.
Different arrangements in Karnataka
Karnataka has arranged a 14-day institutional quarantine for passengers arriving by rail. At the same time, seven days institutional and seven days home quarantine has been arranged for air travelers coming from six states Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Air travelers coming from states less affected by Corona will have to stay home quarantined. Pregnant women, children below 10 years, elderly people above 80 years and sick people will not be placed in institutional quarantines. Traders will be exempted from quarantine based on negative test reports received from ICMR certified labs. If there is no report, it will be investigated and will have to be quarantined till the report comes. On May 13, Karnataka returned 50 passengers from the Rajdhani Express back to Delhi as they refused to go to the Institutional Quarantine.
Reconciliation due to states taking command
The reason for the dilemma over railway and air passengers is the decision of the Center to leave the battle of Corona to the states. Till the lockdown-three, the center was told what the red, orange and green zones would be and what activities would be allowed in them. The states were not allowed to relax any of them. In the lockdown-four guidelines, the Center left the responsibility of states to fix the red, orange and green zones. Not only this, the states were also allowed to fix activities after the container area and buffer zone.
Understand this situation
Case 1: Pawan Kumar (fictitious name) has to travel from Punjab to Uttar Pradesh for three days. For this journey, he will have to spend 14 days in home quarantine in UP and 14 days in institutional quarantine in Punjab on return. The journey of three days will be completed in a month.
Case 2: Raman Kumar (fictitious name) has to travel from Delhi to Uttar Pradesh for three days. For this, they have to stay in Uttar Pradesh for 14 days at home quarantine. There will be no restriction in Delhi in return. In this way, the journey of three days will take an additional 14 days.
Case 3: Madan Kumar (fictitious name) has to go from Delhi to Bihar. There is no quarantine condition for passengers traveling by rail or air in both states. In such a situation, they will not have to spend any extra time.
Important things:
– Domestic flight on limited routes starting from Monday.
– 100 pairs of trains will also start operations from June 1st.
15 pairs of AC trains are also running on the Rajdhani route.
– Central government in favor of movement of non-symptomatic
