Lack of coordination between the Telangana police and their Andhra Pradesh counterparts is visible at the Vadapalli inter-State border.
The former maintain that passes issued by them are not being accepted by those on the other side of the border, while AP police say they cannot accept any passes other than those issued by the DGP office. Hundreds of migrants are caught up in this chaos, endlessly waiting in long queues in the scorching sun.
“The situation went almost out of control on Monday with more than a thousand people waiting, and then SP Ranganath intervened. Talks were held with AP top officials, but they were adamant. They are violating Central guidelines on moving stranded people,” says Miryalaguda rural inspector A. Ramesh Babu, in-charge of the check-post operation with his team of 50 personnel.
Revenue and medical teams, which record entries into Telangana, also recollected the extreme situation. “At least 300 people took the river Krishna route and walked through knee-high water to reach parts of AP,” they said.
Since May 2 until Tuesday, a total of about 1100 people have entered Telangana from AP. “Most of them are workers, then there are people with health and family emergencies. Numbers of those belonging to other States are not recorded,” field officials said.
However, about 200 metres ahead on the other side, the situation is calm. “We have a DSP-rank official who supervises the DG control, and the Principal Secretary, who recommend letters for inter-State migration and emergency transfers. And we accept returning population from Telangana only if they are recommended by the DGP office or the Principal Secretary. This has been the clear instruction in the past 45 days,” says Repalle rural inspector G. Srinivasa Rao, in-charge of the check-post on AP side.
“The biggest problem from Telangana side is that most of the returnees to AP come with recommendation letters issued by SP, DSP, Tahsildar and even inspectors. We cannot accept those as per instructions; there should be wider awareness about it in Telangana,” he said.
However, the rules are flexible in situations involving women in their ninth m6tyfonth of pregnancy and close family members in case of death.
