PUDUCHERRY: Clad in a black shirt and trousers, Puducherry Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao on Wednesday resorted to a dharna in the lobby of the Legislative Assembly, protesting against the denial of entry to 13 Yanam residents including a woman who are stranded on the Andhra Pradesh –Yanam border.
The 13 residents who were working in Hyderabad, Putaparthi and Odisha had walked for several kilometres and reached the border at Yanam, but the administration denied entry citing the lockdown. The minister’s advice to act on humanitarian grounds by checking them and then sending them to a quarantine facility was not acted upon by the administration, he said.
Following this, Rao on Tuesday threatened to resign if the workers were not allowed into Yanam.
Chief Minister V Narayanasamy convened a meeting of the state disaster management authority and directed officials to act on humanitarian grounds and permit the stranded youths to enter Yanam. He said they could follow the protocol of sending them to quarantine or to a COVID-19 hospital.
However the administration has not allowed the youths entry and they continue to remain on the road. At 11 pm on Tuesday night, the administration arranged their stay in a botanical garden in Andhra Pradesh by erecting a shamiana as a roof and provided food and a mattress to lie down. Their samples have been taken for testing.
Rao met the speaker V P Sivakolunthu on Wednesday and submitted a memorandum stating that his constituency is being neglected and that the Lt Governor Kiran Bedi is hindering all activities there. Later, clad in black dress, Rao began the dharna.
Both Sivakolunthu and Chief Minister Narayanasamy requested him to call off his stir. But Rao maintained that he will do it only after getting the issue in his constituency Yanam resolved. Lok Sabha member V Vaithilingam and legislators A Anbazahgan and T Jayamurthy also spoke to Rao.