Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday directed the state government to “permit healthy persons carrying a ‘No Objection Certificate’ (NOC) issued by Telangana police not only to enter the state but go straight to their homes without a mandatory 14-day quarantine period at state-run facilities as insisted by the health authorities.
The division bench headed by chief justice J K Maheshwari said that such people should be quarantined at home under the “surveillance of a doctor and police concerned.”
People who are medically unfit can be taken to quarantine centres run by the government, the court ordered.
The High Court intervention came at a time when the Telangana government, which realised its folly of issuing NOCs, leading to a humanitarian crisis on the borders, cancelled them and many people returned to Hyderabad from AP borders.
“Shocked” over the High Court judgment, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to file a review petition. It fears that the High Court order might lead to a fresh bout of mass exodus.
“We will explain to the court that a centralized quarantine facility was recommended precisely because it is both feasible and effective compared to keeping individual surveillance on thousands of individuals scattered all over the state,” a senior state official told Deccan Chronicle.
