A group of 87 Manipuris, mostly students, were brought to Imphal on Saturday from the Manipur House in Guwahati.
The group were among those stranded in Assam since the beginning of the countrywide lockdown. The State government had sent four buses to evacuate the group from the Assam capital.
Though the police were in touch with their counterparts in Nagaland and Assam, there were delays of several hours since some police stations said they had no information about the evacuation.
Officials said just one person was allowed to sit a seat normally meant for two or three passengers. All 87 persons were screened at Mao Gate, the first police station in Manipur. They were again screened in Imphal.
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Officials said though none was found to be COVID-19 positive, as per WHO guidelines, the returnees will be kept in quarantine for 14 days. A vacated school building of Imphal Valley Academy was converted into a makeshift quarantine centre.
In case of any COVID-19 symptoms, the persons would be moved to the isolation wards of the two medical college hospitals in Imphal — RIMS and JNIMS.
Some of the students said they had been well looked after by government officials in Guwahati. All of them had faced starvation and had been sleeping under the open sky since they had no money at all. The government has credited ₹2,000 each into the accounts of bona fide students and other workers.
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Appeals have been pouring in from several stranded Manipuris from several States. Officials said there are about 50,000 Manipuri students, employees of the government and private companies, traders and other professionals outside the State.
Government sources said efforts are on to evacuate other Manipuris stranded in almost all cities and towns in the country.
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There has been no fresh report of COVID-19 cases in the State. Despite a government notification, only one person, who had attended the religious event at Nizamuddin in Delhi came forward for testing. He was found to be positive but later recovered and tested negative.
The State government meanwhile has collected hefty fines from from persons violating lockdown restrictions and curfew. Sources said the daily collection of fines is around ₹1 lakh.
