KASARGOD: Around 10.30am on Wednesday, two pregnant women from Panjikkal — on their way to get Covid vaccines — were stopped and sent back by the Karnataka police at Mudoor because they did not have RT-PCR negative certificates. Panjikkal in Parappa ward of Kasaragod district’s Delampady panchayat is land-locked by Karnataka.
The women’s vaccination centre in Kerala’s Adoor is just four kilometres from their home. But the Karnataka police — mindlessly implementing their state government’s order requiring mandatory RT-PCR test results — ensured the pregnant women did not get their jabs. To be sure, the Parappa ward has only one case of Covid.
The Karnataka government’s decision to make RT-PCR test results mandatory for people from Kerala has upended the lives of those living on the state border. For the roads to their homes and workplaces weave in and out of the two states at multiple points.
But the Karnataka police have fenced around 17 pocket roads with bamboos and set up checkposts at major roads, isolating thousands of Keralites, said Delampady panchayat president Usha AP.
“A bus from Kasaragod cannot reach Delampady panchayat or its headquarters, Adoor, without entering Karnataka,” she said.In Delampady panchayat, four wards -- Ujampady (ward no. 1), Delampady (2), Parappa (3), and Mayyala (16) — and half of Pallangod ward (15) share their borders with Karnataka.
Illegal blocks and restrictions leave Ksgd border residents frustrated
The blockade has disrupted the lives of 5,500 people in these five wards. The first two wards of Enmakaje panchayat — Saya and Chavarkkad — sit 1km inside Karnataka. The Karnataka police have set up a checkpost at Saradka on the Cherkala-Kalladka highway. The two wards of Kerala have around 3,000 residents and they cannot access their health centre, ration shop, village office, panchayat office and agriculture office.
“If we have to get an RT-PCR test, we will have to go to Perla in Kerala 15km away. The Karnataka police will not allow us back if we do not return with a negative certificate. And the lab takes at least 24 hours to send the results,” said Aithappa Kulal, resident of Chavarkkad ward.
Chavarkkad has zero Covid cases while Saya has one. Since the Covid outbreak last year, the two wards had fewer than 10 cases. But Karnataka police did not allow even panchayat and health officials to go to Saya and Chavarkkad, said Enmakaje panchayat president Somashekhara J S.
“We are starting from Kerala and stopping in Kerala. Yet, they are not allowing us to pass,” he said. In the first wave, when police dumped mud on the road to block Keralites’ right to movement, he moved the Karnataka High Court which ruled that roads cannot be blocked.
“These blocks and curbs are illegal. The least the police can do is give passes to people of border wards so that their movement is not restricted,” he said. Karnataka police at the checkpost told him they were only following orders.
Kasaragod Collector Bhandari Swagat Ranveerchand said she had asked her Dakshina Kannada counterpart, Rajendra K V, to allow Delampady and Enmakaje panchayat residents to travel to Kerala without curbs. “I have shared the TPR and Covid data with him. He said he would look into it,” she said.