HYDERABAD: Over 300 passengers who landed in the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport from UAE and other Gulf nations were released from quarantine on Friday after they protested unhygienic conditions at the Rajendranagar centre.
They were released with ink stamped on their hands reading- “TS Home Quarantine Till 2-4-2019”.
The travellers staged a hunger strike and blocked food vans from entering the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management till their demands were met.
Speaking to Express, one of the travellers alleged that two-three members were forced to stay in one room. “There weren’t enough soaps and sanitisers to go around. Some rooms had no mattresses. Some had one soap for three members.
There was no government official to complain to,” the person said. One woman, sister of a person quarantined at the centre posted on Facebook, the various issues people there faced. Mosquitoes, bed bugs, non-functional toilet flushes, lack of ACs, no western commodes, lack of spoons were among the list of grouses.
The Central government had notified that travellers from UAE , Qatar, Oman and Kuwait would be quarantined if they departed from the place of origin after 12pm GMT on March 18. However, some travellers say they started from their destinations before the deadlifrom their destinations before the deadline. The quarantined lot even blocked the entrance to the centre with thene. The quarantined lot even blocked the entrance to the centre with their luggage. At 12.30 am on Friday.