GUWAHATI: If you are rich or influential, you can escape the mandatory institutional quarantine for COVID-19 in Nagaland. That’s what a tribal organisation in the state claimed.
The Northern Angami Youth Organization in Kohima district claimed several such people, who arrived home from various parts of the country, had been exempted by the government from the purview of mandatory 14-day quarantine at government facilities.
Criticising the alleged “biased” actions, Roko Angami, president of the organisation, urged the state government to ensure that the rules pertaining to COVID-19 apply to all citizens, irrespective of their social status. He urged the government not to differentiate people based on any ground, including their financial positions.
The state’s Chief Secretary Temjen Toy told The New Indian Express that he would look into the issue. “I have no such reports but I will find out (if there are) such cases. It looks unlikely,” he said.
The tribal body asked its youth organisations not to allow anyone to enter villages under its jurisdiction for home quarantine if they had not undergone institutional quarantine.
Some states in Northeast are alarmed as their people have started arriving from various parts of the country. The fear that a lot of people might be infected if those arriving are not medically examined and quarantined made the locals to barricade villages across districts.
Officially, Nagaland has not recorded a single case so far. However, a man from the state had tested positive at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital. He was referred by a private hospital in the state’s commercial hub Dimapur. He has already recovered.