ITANAGAR, Jun 11: The All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) has demanded “rigorous testing of drivers and handymen and sanitization of all commercial vehicles, including trucks, coming from outside the state at Banderdewa, Hollongi and Gumto check gates in the capital region.”
The union also demanded stepping up Covid-19 testing, ILP checking and sanitization of vehicles at all other entry points to the state.
In a press release, the union said that, during visits to all the check gates in and around the capital region on 9 and 10 June, an AAPSU team headed by its president Hawa Bagang found that the trucks carrying essential commodities and other supplies were not being sanitized properly at the Banderdewa check gate, “which has been designated as entry point for all the essential commodities in the state capital.”
The AAPSU team said it also observed that the truck drivers and handymen were neither being checked nor thermal-screened.
Taking strong exception to the “high risk of coronavirus infection in the state posed due to such negligence,” the union said it is “of the strong view against allowing entry of such higher number of truck drivers and handymen into the state without proper Covid-19 test and sanitization of vehicles.”
It said the truck drivers coming from outside the state should be made to leave immediately after delivering the supplies, “and initiative for collection of swab samples of drivers for Covid-19 test may be started at the earliest.”
“There have also been repeated instances of many outsiders, especially labourers, entering the state in the recent days through jungles and riverside routes,” the AAPSU said, and urged the state government to look into the matter, saying “entry of such people is posing serious risks to the people of the state.”
