The Congress-ruled Punjab Government has failed to trace 1330 out of 55,000 Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) who returned to the State from foreign countries after the 30th of January in the midst of country-wide lockdown in a bid to control the spread of Wuhan Coronavirus. Reportedly, these returnees evaded quarantine under the nose of the administration. The missing NRIs belonged to Rural Jalandhar (204), Ludhiana (172), Mohali (128), Gurdaspur (118), and Hoshiarpur (63).
Keeping in mind the alarming health risk posed by these untraceable passengers to the society, the State Ministry of Home Affairs has issued directions to the law enforcement authorities to find and quarantine the missing people for 14 days. The Divisional, Deputy and Police Commissioners have been asked to divide the districts into sectors and appoint Section officers for 8-10 villages.
Chief Secretary of the Punjab Government, Karan A Singh, was quoted as saying, “Till date, more than 48,000 NRIs have come to the state and almost all of them have been traced baring a few as the passport numbers and address given by them were incorrect. We have again written to the Union government to verify and send us the correct address.”
He also claimed that Punjab is the only state to have been able to track people who have returned from abroad. Singh added that a few people kept under home quarantine have expressed their displeasure but he appealed to them to stay at their homes.
Earlier, around 167 people who were suspected of being infected Wuhan Coronavirus had been missing in Ludhiana, while only 29 had been traced, said Dr Rajesh Bagga, the city’s civil surgeon. He added, “Two teams have been tasked to find the people coming from abroad, in which police have been given responsibility for finding 119 people. They have found 12 people so far and the other team is from the health department, in which they were given the responsibility to find 77 people. 17 people have been traced by the health department team while the rest of 167 people are still missing.”