200 New Delhi-returned passengers revolt against 14-day quarantine

These passengers refused to accept official explanations on the need for quarantine in light of the pandemic situation in the country.

The Rajdhani special train arrived at Bengaluru city railway station on Thursday morning at around 7.40 am. As per railway sources, around 992 passengers had boarded the train at the New Delhi railway station but by the time it arrived at Bengaluru, around 623 deboarded as others had got down at stops en route.

Sources told theBengalurulive that the situation was under control till all the passengers were screened and asked to undergo a 14-day quarantine either in hotels or government facilities.

“There was no problem initially when the quarantine procedure began. Nearly 440 of them agreed to be quarantined but 200 have revolted despite our explaining the situation to them,” said an officer who was closely monitoring the developments at the city railway station.

Apart from the railway staff, IAS officer and BBMP’s special commissioner (health) Ravi Kumar Surpur and IGP (railways) D Roopa’s attempts to convince these passengers went in vain.

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Sources also said that some of the passengers even indicated that they were ready to board another train back to New Delhi instead of undergoing the 14-days quarantine.

At the time this report was published on theBengalurulive.com, the officials had failed to convince this group of passengers to accept the 14-day quarantine measure.

Meanwhile, to the claim of some of the passengers that they were not informed about the quarantine, the Bengaluru division’s railway manager tweeted that “everyone was well-informed during the booking of tickets.”

The DRM’s tweet read: “As per the health protocol of GoK, all incoming persons to Karnataka need to go compulsorily for institutional quarantine. Most of the persons have already left for the quarantine facilities,” adding: “Passengers were informed at the time of booking that they will have to follow the quarantine protocol of the concerned state governments.”