Vehicles pile up at Bengal-Jharkhand border as Dhanbad makes COVID test mandatory

Two teams of doctors and paramedical staff have been deployed at the Maithon check-post on National Highway-2 and the Barakar-Chirkunda check-post to conduct rapid antigen test of anyone who enters Jharkhand, they said. "If anyone is found to be positive, then that person will be admitted to the Nirsa or Dhanbad Sadar Covid Care Centre," Deputy Commissioner Umashankar Singh said after inspecting the Maithon check-post in the afternoon.

A large number of vehicles piled up at the West Bengal-Jharkhand border here as the Dhanbad district administration ordered that anybody entering from the neighbouring state will have to undergo a mandatory COVID-19 test, officials said. Two teams of doctors and paramedical staff have been deployed at the Maithon check-post on National Highway-2 and the Barakar-Chirkunda check-post to conduct rapid antigen test of anyone who enters Jharkhand, they said.

"If anyone is found to be positive, then that person will be admitted to the Nirsa or Dhanbad Sadar Covid Care Centre," Deputy Commissioner Umashankar Singh said after inspecting the Maithon check-post in the afternoon. Whether travelling by car, two-wheeler or on foot, everyone is being tested, said Modassar Manuri, the in-charge of the testing drive.

"Till 5 pm, over 1,000 tests were conducted and there is no dearth of kits," he said. Due to the mandatory testing, a long queue of vehicles was seen on the West Bengal side of the highway.

Many people, who were waiting in their vehicles for hours to get the tests done, said the decision was unnecessary. We are going to Aurangabad in Bihar from Durgapur in West Bengal but they have stopped us for testing while we have nothing to do with Dhanbad or Jharkhand," said Dipak Kumar Singh, who was waiting in his car.

Only pedestrians and two-wheelers are allowed through the nearby Barakar-Chirkunda check-post and people complained of hardship there as well. Meanwhile, the administration has also decided retest for COVID-19 the miners working at the Lakhimata and Chapakol collieries of Eastern Coalfield Limited.

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