Telangana-Andhra Border Witnesses Logjam As People Desperately Try To Find Their Way Home

The Telangana-Andhra Pradesh border was witness to chaos last night, as people desperately tried to reach their destination, a day after 21-day nationwide lockdown kicked in.

Telangana police issued passes to people ¡ª¡°only those who have their own means of transport¡± - to travel to their native places, mainly in Andhra Pradesh leading to massive jam at the border.

Twitter

Amid the panic over the coronavirus outbreak, hundreds of people, mainly IT professionals and students from Hyderabad were stopped from crossing the Telangana-Andhra border, despite producing no objection certificates (NOC) issued by the Telangana Police.

Their ordeal, at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged everyone to follow strict social distancing measures to curb the spread of the virus, lasted for several hours due to a miscommunication between the state governments.

Facebook

Most of them were those techies and students who live in Hyderabad but are originally from the neighbouring Telugu state. With the number of Covid-19 cases witnessing a rise in Hyderabad, several private hostels in the city have asked people to vacate the premises immediately, citing government orders.

It forced the students to act and find their way home, but they had to go through desperate scenes at the border as police refused to let the students enter despite No Objection Certificate (NOC) issued by Telangana police.

Facebook

Deccan Chronicle reported that there were serpentine queues of vehicles at the Garikapadu checkpost on the Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway and at the Panchalingala checkpost near Kurnool on the Hyderabad-Bangalore highway.

Women pleaded to be let through so they could travel onward to their destination.

The state of Telangana has reported fresh cases of COVID-19, including a three-year-old boy, taking the total number of people infected with the virus in the state to 41, according to a government bulletin on Wednesday.