235 people stranded in Bangladesh return to northeast

Altogether 235 people of the northeastern states who were stranded in Bangladesh due to the COVID-19 lockdown were sent back on Thursday through three Indo-Bangla border check posts in the region, Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Riva Ganguly Das said. Most of the returnees hail from Tripura, Assam, Manipur, and Meghalaya, she said.

Das, who accompanied those hailing from Tripura to the Agartala-Akhaura integrated check post said all the 235 Indian citizens had expressed their desire to go back to their respective states and the High Commission facilitated their return. The two other check posts through which the stranded people entered India are the Sutarkandi-Sheola check post in Assam and Dawki-Tamabil check post in Meghalaya.

Pratima Bhoumik, the Lok Sabha MP from Tripura who received the returnees here, said 129 people from the state had listed to come back, but 106 did on Thursday. All of them would be kept in institutional quarantine for seven days and if they test negative, they would be released with advice of mandatory home quarantine. Otherwise, they have to be treated at the G B Pant hospital here, Bhoumik said.

The MP said all required steps had been taken by the health department in respect of the collection of samples of the returnees and shifting them to institutional quarantine. Quarantine for the returnees to Assam would be in Karimganj, in Imphal hotel for those from Manipur, while those from Meghalaya would be kept in their respective districts, Bhowmick said.

She also said that Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb would visit all the 58 blocks in eight districts of Tripura from tomorrow to inspect ground realities and steps taken to fight corona virus.