Goemkarponn desk
CANACONA: In an uncanny and tense situation at the Polem border, Congressmen in Goa held fort till 2 pm on Tuesday, demanding RT-PCR negative report along with vaccination certificate from the people entering Goa from Karnataka.
Congressmen on Tuesday began to impose its own SOP demanding Rt-PCR negative report from people entering Goa via Polem border check-post and resisted moves by police to stop their action, finally withdrawing from the check post at about 2 pm.
Interestingly, while the policemen and other government officials manning the entry point at Polem checkpost remained mute spectators, Congress leaders including GPCCI General Secretary Janardhan Bhandari, GPCC Secretary Mahadev Dessai, Congress Block members including Cleston Viegas, Congress Block Youth Committee president Vaishnav Pednekar, Congress Block Mahila President Ursula De Costa and others stopped vehicles coming from Karnataka, and demanded for negative Rt-PCR report Valid for 72 hours to enter the State.
When some motorists flashed vaccination Certificates stating the Goa imposed certificate demands the same, Congressmen were heard saying, ‘ when Karnataka allows people with negative RT-PCR report valid for 72 hours, travellers from Karnataka entering had to also have the same criteria to enter Goa.
Congressmen vehemently told criteriaists that there cannot be two different criterias for the people coming and going or crossing the state borders.
Some policemen manning the border posts tried to pacify Congressmen not to stop motorists from having dual vaccination certificates. Still, the Congressmen were in no mood to listen, resulting in chaos amongst the travellers coming from Karnataka, beginning the neutral area between both (Majali and Polem) checkpoints.
A traveller who wanted to go to Karwar informed, he’s not being allowed to enter the Majali check-post with a dual vaccination certificate and said, ‘it is not proper to demand RT-PCR negative on the part of Karnataka government, it’s illegal when a certificate of Covid vaccination is not accepted. This should be corrected and stopped from giving trouble to people.
“People are not happy and being unnecessarily burdened by Karnataka government SOP, while Goa government has put Goans at risk by not implementing common Covid guidelines to people coming instead. ‘instesd of asking our government, I am asking the authorities including the chief secretary and both the Collectors to impose proper guidelines so that people do not fall prey to Covid deaths like before, as begin January case have begun to rise, and we know the same situation of lack of hospitals, and oxygen will make matters worse if not controlled at this time,” said Janardan Bhandari.
Congressmen finally withdrew from Checkpost after having heated arguments and discussions with the Police Sub-inspectors of Karnataka and Goa (Rifa Barretto) and other officials, but not before issuing a warning to the Goa government to impose strict Covid guidelines for people entering Goa from other States, at least common guidelines in relation with bordering States.
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