The Nangili episode of Andhra Pradesh fishermen trying to cross into Chittoor district from Karnataka on Friday has made the police to intensify vigil along the inter-State borders with Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
The police and district officials heaved a sigh of relief after sending back over 1,500 fishermen of North coastal Andhra districts to their respective workstations in Karnataka on Saturday, after consultations at the State level. The fishermen in large numbers reached the inter-State border at Nangili, 15 km from Palamaner, leading to a tense situation. Officials of Chittoor and the neighbouring Kolar district in Karnataka were engaged in hectic discussions through the early hours of Saturday.
In the backdrop of this development, the police stepped up surveillance along the border with Tamil Nadu from Satyavedu in the eastern mandals to Kuppam in the west. The borders with Chickaballapur and Kolar of Karnataka have also been put under strict vigil. Hundreds of migrant workers from the border towns and villages of Nagari, Puttur, Satyavedu and Nagalapuram regularly move to and from various places of Tamil Nadu.
A 45-year-old man, a resident of Puttur town, who works at a hotel in Chennai created a flutter on Friday night when he reached home during the lockdown period. As the neighbours noticed him coughing and sneezing, he was questioned and made to leave the locality. However, the police intervened and pacified the neighbours by sending the man to quarantine at a Tirupati hospital.
Deputy SP (Puttur) D. Muralidhar told The Hindu: “A large number of workforce from Nagari and Puttur towns and other villages of the border areas earn their livelihood doing odd jobs in Tamil Nadu, visiting their places here periodically. As there is a possibility of the stranded workers entering the district, we have tightened surveillance at the border check-posts.”
