300 air passengers escape mandatory test in Silchar; “Will take legal actions,” ADC

COVID-19 infection kills and it does not need reminding. Yesterday, the Prime Minister of India emphasised the importance of self-discipline. Unless COVID protocols are adhered to, the outbreak will spread faster and more people will die. Such is the vulnerability of this pandemic.

It has been more than a year, Cachar district, like most parts of the country, is living with a pandemic. Yet, the norms are flouted and mismanagements are witnessed. From today, the Assam Government’s department of health made it mandatory for the air-passengers to undergo tests at the government’s facilities.

In what becomes the third-order related to air passengers this month, it was announced by the government. The same was reiterated by the Cachar administration too. According to the rules, each passenger will be transported to the Model Hospital at Tikal Tea Estate near Salganga Temple in Udharbond. There, both RAT and RT-PCR tests are conducted. If an air passenger, tests negative on RAT, a mandatory RT-PCR needs to be done and the passenger will have to pay Rs 500 for each test.

While it was announced yesterday, on ground zero, it became a mess. Additional Deputy Commissioner – Health, Sumit Sattavan explained the scenario terming it “An unruly mess.”

The ADC informed that 690 passengers deboarded from six flights that landed at Silchar Airport today. Only 189 passengers took the test and out of them six air passengers tested positive for COVID19. 46 air passengers took exemption citing compliances.  What comes as a shocking revelation, “300 people have moved out without getting tested. Some of them ran away from the testing centre at Tikal while some abused the men at work in Airport and violated regulations laid by the Government of Assam,” informed ADC Sattavan.

He accepted the administration was caught off-guard. “We did not anticipate such a mass violation of the norms, especially, from the air passengers. We expected them to cooperate and get themselves tested as otherwise, it puts the entire society at risk,” said Sattavan.

There were four policemen at the Airport and staff from the district administration. Sattavan claimed that all air passengers were adequately explained about the process and yet they choose to violate the norms. “Since they are air passengers, we know their email ids, phone numbers and other important information and we will trace them. The administration will lodge FIRs and action will be taken against them as per the law,” asserted Sattavan.

The administration made it clear that the tests are being done for the benefit of the general public and violations won’t be tolerated. Sattavan explained that the tests are being done at Model Hospital in Tikal as Silchar Airport does not have an adequate amount of space to test so many passengers on a daily basis. The passengers will be transported from Airport to the Model Hospital in buses sanitised and provided by the ASTC.