Mangaluru : Karnataka sent back from its borders people found traveling without Covid negative certificate from Kerala. A protest ensued in Thalappadi shortly thereafter over Karnataka blocking even people who have been vaccinated with two doses.
Karnataka intensified checking at all its borders including Thalappadi and signaled all without negative certificate to go back.
Though the state implemented covid testing at its passages, the exercise has been dropped. Daily commuters must now furnish Covid negative certificate once a week.
There will be no relaxation till case levels ease in Kerala, said ADGP Prathap Reddy. Guard shall be lowered only for those traveling on emergency or educational purposes, he added.
Political parties met up and held joint protest at the border. Given that, even countries abroad permit fully vaccinated people, Karnataka’s indiscriminate ban appears politically motivated, said CPI(M) Kasaragod District Secretary Jayachandran.
60 persons from Kerala who reached Mangaluru by train were shifted to the Town Hall. Elsewhere in Bengaluru, train travelers who arrived at Majestic railway station and did not possess covid negative certificate were moved to quarantine centres. Testing has been arranged for at all rail stations and is specially intense at Majestic station, where trains from Maharashtra and Kerala converge.
