Guwahati/Agartala: After Assam reported 20 positive COVID-19 cases, all the attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi’s Nizamuddin, six Northeastern states sealed the interstate borders and barred the general entry from Assam, ministers and officials said on Friday.
Assam shares 2,743-km-long interstate boundaries with Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya and West Bengal.
Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who holds both the Health and Home Departments, while holding a meeting to review the preparedness to deal with the COVID-19 issues, strongly asked the officials to maintain a highest vigil along the interstate borders with Assam and Mizoram
“Except the goods-laden trucks and freight trains, nothing should be allowed to enter Tripura from the neighbouring states and across the Bangladesh borders,” Deb said.
“We must be extra careful against the spread of the novel coronavirus as positive cases were found in Assam, Mizoram and Bangladesh. Tripura is so far free from the positive cases,” Deb stated.
Nagaland government has sealed the state’s borders with Assam along Wokha district with immediate effect, in the wake of increasing positive COVID-19 cases in Assam.
Deputy Commissioner of Wokha district said that in the interest of public health and in consideration with the reports of positive cases in Assam and to contain the spread of coronavirus in the border district, the order was made under the Epidemic diseases Act, 1897.
“The DC’s notification directed the sealing of all inter-state entry points of Assam except for movement of security forces and emergency medical services. It also ordered the supply of all essential commodities to be routed through Dimapur district. Any violators would be booked under under Section 188 of the IPC,” an official said in Kohima referring the DC’s order.
In Mizoram, the government has further tightened the security along its interstate borders with Assam, Manipur and Tripura following the spike in coronavirus positive cases in neighbouring states. Mizoram Deputy Inspector General (Northern Range) Lalbiakthanga Khiangte said security has been further tightened along the state borders with neighbouring states to check movement of people.
“All the check posts along the interstate borders, especially in Vairengte and Bairabi on the Mizoram-Assam border and Mamit district along the state border with Tripura have been further alerted,” the police official said. He also said that additional security forces have also been deployed along the interstate borders.
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu, during a review meeting on Thursday, asked the police department to keep vigil of the porous border with Assam besides strict monitoring of all 22 official entry gates to prevent any suspicious access. (IANS)
