More than 100 labourers from Garhwa and Latehar districts quarantined at the Kowwa Khoh government centre in Chhaterpur subdivision of Palamau, some 62km from here, are impatient to go home.

Their case highlights the plight of millions like them across the country, stuck without jobs or earning in a nation that has locked itself down to fight the novel coronavirus.

These 100 labourers have completed 16 days of quarantine, two days more than the 14-day norm, and are all healthy.

However, as their homes are in other districts, inter-district passage requires permission from higher-ups, a senior state government officer who did not want not to be identified, said.

“There is no problem in intra-district passage of quarantined people but for inter-district passage we are waiting for the MHA’s (the ministry of home affairs) new guidelines to come in a day or two.”

Chhatarpur sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Shambhu Kumar Singh told The Telegraph on Tuesday that the labourers had completed their 16 days in quarantine and among them are two children aged four and five, and their mothers too.

Quoting the doctors, the SDPO said: “No one has any health issue remotely linked to the novel coronavirus.”

The SDPO added that if and when their exit is allowed these labourers have to give a written undertaking that they will comply with another 14 days of home quarantine.

He admitted that the people are frantic to go home, frustrated and angry.

In response, the senior bureaucrat added that he understood the impatience of the people to go home, especially when they don’t have any health problems, but “permission has to come from above”.

The Telegraph spoke to Palamau deputy commissioner (DC) Shantanu Kumar Agrahari on the fate of the labourers in limbo. “I am in touch with the state government on this,” the DC said. “There will be soon some way out for such people if they have no health problem.”

Superintendent of police Ajay Linda said he had asked Chhatarpur SDPO Shambhu Kumar Singh to urge the labourers to be patient.

On whether the anger of the labourers could spill onto the streets, Linda said: “We will see that all stays well here.”