Kasaragod MP Rajmohan Unnithan on Monday filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court against Karnataka closing its borders with Kerala in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. The petition demanded that the border be opened.
He said that since Karnataka had blocked roads, the movement of ambulances and other emergency vehicles for patients’ treatment and for the transport of commodities to Kerala had been hindered. He said the people of Kasaragod depended entirely on the medical facilities in Mangaluru.
The petition stated that the blockade was against the Constitution and violated constitutional guarantees such as the right to travel, the right to food, and the right to health care.
NHAI property
The MP argued that national highways were the property of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the State government had no authority to block them. The NHAI had not given Karnataka permission to block the roads.
The blockade was against the directive of the Union government to all State governments that the transportation of all goods, without the distinction of essential and non-essential ones, be allowed during the lockdown period. Karnataka’s refusal to open the roads was against the guidelines of the Union government and against the interest of the public at large.
Villages isolated
He said that with Karnataka blocking the border by unloading soil and erecting barricades, the villages of Kasaragod were isolated. Two persons died after their ambulance was blocked on their way to Mangaluru. There was also an incident of a woman giving birth in an ambulance, he added.
