Nepalgunj, Mar. 30: They walked for about four days violating lockdown in India in the hope that once they enter their home country, everything would be fine. But for the 170 Nepalis who arrived at Rupaidiya, the Indian side at the Nepal-India border point here, situation does not seem so pleasant.
They are just a part of the hordes of migrant Nepali workers in India who have been returning home despite the fact that it has been nearly a week that lockdown is in effect both in India and Nepal to fight back COVID-19.
And they have to face another trouble to enter their country.
On Monday morning, some 170 Nepalis lined up in a queue at Jamunah of Banke to cross the border.
“In coordination with the Nepali officials, we are making efforts to send the Nepalis to their homes,” Santosh Sukla, an Indian journalist, quoted Indian border security force, Seema Surkshya Bal (SSB), as saying.
Sukla added that SSB had provided tea and snacks to the Nepalis left stranded across the border.
“We have arrived at the Rupaidiya border, with much difficulty, sometimes on bus, sometimes walking on foot for hundreds of kilometer. Now, it is up to our government to arrange for our journey to our home,” said Ram Bahadur Thapa, a resident of Dailekh, on phone.
Likewise, some 50 Indians have also been left stranded in the Nepal side of the border point here. Nepali officials at the border point said that preparations were made to send them to their homes.
On Sunday, 26 Indian migrant workers in Nepal who reached the border from Dang in Nepal were sent to their homes in India.
District Administration Office, Banke, said that discussions were made about how to keep the Nepalis in quarantine after rescuing them from India as keeping in quarantine is compulsory.
Kumar Bahadur Khadka, Chief District Officer (CDO) of Banke, said that in the past few days rescued Nepali people were sent to their home district with the assurance from the concerned authority of the respective district that they would be kept in quarantine.
Krishna Prasad Shrestha, a civil society activist, viewed that Nepalis returning from India should not be stopped but it should be ensured that they are kept in quarantine for the specified period as their entry may add to the risk of spread of the novel coronavirus in Nepal.
– The Rising Nepal
