Hyderabad: As many as 40 people from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, who went to Telangana's Sangareddy district to attend a wedding, are stuck with the host at his house for over a month since the declaration of nationwide COVID-19 lockdown.
A total of 46 persons, including six family members of the host are living in a small house in Bollarum Industrial Area in Sangareddy, facing severe hardships, amid the social distancing norms that should be followed amid the deadly COVID-19 outbreak.
They had come from Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha to attend the marriage of Gali Narayana Rao's son on March 20. Even as they were getting ready to return on March 23, the sudden lockdown was announced.
With no other option available, they stayed in the host's house. They all are using a single washroom. The guests have been spending the night on the terrace. With rising temperature, even that has turned into an unbearable option.
Read: COVID-19 Death Toll Rises To 681 In India, Confirmed Cases Climb To 21,393
Narayana Rao, the host, is struggling to provide food for his guests, including women and children. When he approached the police to request them to make some arrangement for the guests to return to their homes, they could only arrange three quintal rice and vegetables.
The local police officer conveyed to Rao that they can't arrange travel for the guests and can only help by providing ration.
One of the guests said they had booked their train tickets for March 23 but the lockdown began in Telangana the same day. The state has now extended the lockdown till May 7.
They have appealed to the government to make some arrangements to send them back to their homes.
Meanwhile, Odisha is bracing up for an influx of lakhs of people who are stranded outside the state because of the ongoing lockdown. While the State government expects around 5 lakh people belonging to the state to return from outside states within days after the lockdown ends on May 3, another estimate reveals that a total of around 7.5 lakh are stranded and eagerly waiting to return to the state.
With the increasing number of persons testing positive for COVID-19 in the state having travel history to Kolkata, Odisha Police on Wednesday sealed roads along the West Bengal border.
The roads were sealed and additional force deployment was made a day after DGP Abhaya visited the border check gates.
Also Read: COVID-19: Odisha Police Seals 57 Roads To West Bengal
The travel history of the four COVID-19 patients released by the state government claimed that all of them had visited Kolkata and returned to Odisha in the first week of April, which indicated that the people could easily cross through the border even it was sealed due to lockdown.
As per Odisha Health and Family Welfare Department, so far, out of the total COVID-19 cases (83) in the State, the number of active cases stands at 49 while 33 persons have been discharged with one death case.
(With Agency Inputs)