Newmai News Network
Imphal | June 20
Occupants of a COVID-19 quarantine centre in Manipur’s Bishnupur district staged a protest on Saturday against delays in test results. Over 130 occupants of the quarantine centre at the Sericulture Training Institute of Kwakta came out on the street along Tidim Road (Imphal-Churachandpur Road) in protest, disrupting traffic for several hours despite repeated warning from the police.
All kinds of vehicles coming from both sides of the road remained stranded for hours as the protestors demanded officials of the state government to come and hold talks with them. The protestors returned to the quarantine centre only after the Additional SP of the district who rushed to the spot assured them to take up their grievances with the concerned authority. An occupant taking part in the protest said that they were lodging in the quarantine centre since the last week of May. All of them are returnees from Coimbatore and Kerala who reached the state on May 26, 27 and 28 and samples for testing for COVID-19 were collected around 13 days ago.
They demanded that the concerned authorities do the needful to provide the test results at the earliest and take up necessary steps as per the results. This is not the first incident of protest by occupants of quarantine centres in the state. Around 10 days ago, occupants of the quarantine centre at Diligent Public School, Moirang, of the same district had also staged the protest by blocking the same Tidim Road. In that protest, the inmates were expressing resentment over the lack of basic safety measures and facilities inside the quarantine centre. Similar protests were also reported at some quarantine centres in Thoubal as well as other districts.
