The Assam government has opened its borders with all the six northeastern states in the region to facilitate from Sunday the entry of those who have been stranded in these neighbouring states owing to the ongoing nationwide lockdown.

The state government, while preparing for the inflow of a large number of people stranded outside the state, has discouraged the coming of people from Covid hotspots.

State health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said, “Those who are stranded in the northeastern states, excluding Sikkim, can start coming into Assam from Sunday. Though it will take a few more days to arrange government buses to these states, anyone having private transportation can reach Assam from tomorrow morning.”

Assam State Transport Service (ASTC) will send buses to Shillong in Meghalaya, Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh, Dimapur in Nagaland and Agartala in Tripura soon.

All returnees will be screened at inter-state borders for coronavirus symptoms and will be stamped. Those found with symptoms will be sent to quarantine centres for further check-ups.

From the numbers of people who have contacted the state helpline over the last few weeks, the state government has estimated that around 20 lakh people from Assam are currently outside the state.

“Though we can’t stop anyone from returning to Assam, I would like to request those who are residing in hotspots and green zones to reconsider their plans. While those from hotspots may pose as a threat to their own family and society in general, those in green zones may stay back for some more time since the Centre has allowed economic activities in green zones from next week. They can go back to work there. Moreover, the state will also provide Rs 2,000 to each of them monthly,” Sarma said.

The state government also released a helpline number, 7428159966, to facilitate the return of stranded people. People having personal vehicles or conveyances were asked to send their details on assamtransportrelief@gmail.com.

Though Dispur had requested the Union civil aviation ministry and various private airlines to airlift 859 stranded patients from Assam on a priority basis, the idea was dropped after two among them tested positive in Mumbai. For now, the state is planning to request special trains.

At least five health-testing points at Srirampur, Sarusajai, Tezpur, Jorhat and Silchar were also being prepared in the state to facilitate the health check-ups of returnees. “Though it’s not easy to accommodate such a huge number of people at one time, everyone has to be quarantined after reaching Assam. Those who don’t want to stay in our quarantine facilities will be asked to stay in hotels under observation,” he added. Sarma said that it may take several months to bring them back while maintaining social distancing norms.

Manipur scenario: Altogether 87 Manipuri natives, who had been stranded at Guwahati for the past month since the national lockdown was imposed on March 25, have been brought back to Imphal in four buses by maintaining social distance norms on Saturday.

All passengers have been lodged at the Imphal Valley School at Ghari in Imphal West District where they will undergo quarantine for 14 days. Their samples have been collected by five teams of doctors for Covid-19 test to be done at the VRDL, JNIMS Hospital.

Additional reporting by Brozendra Ningomba in Imphal

The four buses left Imphal for Guwahati on April 30 to pick up the stranded people from Manipur Bhavan where they had been lodged for the past month. The four buses left Guwahati on Friday evening and arrived at Mao on Saturday morning where the passengers were subjected to screening by a team of doctors.

A team of officials of the health services department, led by health and social welfare minister, L. Jayantakumar, received the passengers at Imphal Valley School, which had been selected for the government quarantine centre. Jayantakumar appealed to the newly arrived people to cooperate with the authorities and spend the 14-day quarantine period in the interest of self and people’s lives. He said bringing back 87 stranded Manipuri passengers from Guwahati was the first phase of his government’s plan to bring back Manipuri natives stranded in different parts of India who could not reach home due to cancellation of flights and train services before the national lockdown was announced.