Chittoor district has remained vulnerable to the unrestricted entry of migrant workers from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, with which the tail-end district shares its borders, but it will not be anymore.
While the lockdown has ensured the shutdown of even the little-known inter-State roads, not to speak of the thoroughly-sealed national and State highways, the working classes have found an escape route: the railway tracks.
Strict monitoring
Following instructions from the Superintendent of Railway Police (Vijayawada) Narayan Naik, the General Railway Police sleuths have decided to stand guard at the entry points into the State—Venkata Narasimha Rajuvaripeta and Gudupalle.
The first one, which is famous as the railway station with the second longest name, is located beyond Nagari on the Renigunta-Chennai railway route of Southern Railway.
The second one falls in Kuppam constituency on the Chennai-Bengaluru railway route under South Western Railway and is the entry point into the district for migrant labopurers from both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
With no vehicular movement as the roads remained cut off, railway authorities observed frequent movement of people along the tracks that have stopped witnessing train movement due to the lockdown.
“This defeated the purpose of the lockdown and we have decided to close the railway borders,” said Deputy Superintendent of Railway Police (Tirupati) S.M. Ramesh Babu. With this, the major porous entry points from the neighbouring states appear to have been thoroughly sealed.
