Three migrant workers who had cycled for three days to return to Malda from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh were sent to a quarantine centre immediately after they reached on Saturday.

Sources said Javed Biswas, Ahmed Sheikh and Mohammad Ekramul Sheikh, who hail from different villages in Kaliachak-I block, had been working in Gorakhpur for the past few years and had set out for home after their income dried up during the lockdown.

“They used to hawk various products in Gorakhpur. After the lockdown they had stayed back but when they realised that the restrictions could be extended, they decided to cycle 700km to return to Malda,” an official said.

When they reached a village in Chanchal-I block of the district, some locals stopped them and informed the local BDO, who got in touch with the Kaliachak-I BDO. The trio requested that they be allowed to proceed to Kaliachak but the administration refused. They were sent to a quarantine centre in Chanchal.

Escape bid

A migrant worker from Uttar Pradesh who had been getting restless in the isolation ward of Raiganj Government Medical College and Hospital (RGMCH) in North Dinajpur tried to escape and concealed himself on the parapet of second-floor window before he was brought down by police and fire department officials after two-and-a-half hours.

The man had been admitted to the isolation ward with Covid-19-like symptoms 12 days ago but tested negative for the coronavirus. The man, who was to be released in two days, was brought down with a ladder after much coaxing.

At Islampur in the same district, 12 persons who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi in March have been quarantined for 14 days. Although none of them showed any symptoms, they were quarantined as a precautionary measure, the police said.