Institutional quarantine of Chamba returnees resented

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, May 4

As many as 240 Chamba residents, a majority of whom are students brought in HRTC buses by the state government from Chandigarh and other areas of Punjab into the district yesterday, have been quarantined in the facilities created by the district authorities.

Sources said parents of many students have protested against the decision of the district administration to put their wards in schools under quarantine.

A parent said in other districts, the students are being sent to their homes where they are advised home quarantine for 28 days. However, in Chamba district, the students have been put under quarantine in schools. The parents are alleging that their wards were unsafe.

“We had called our children back with the impression that they would be allowed to come home where they can remain under quarantine under the care of their parents. If the government was to keep them in quarantine at public places we would not have called our children back”, a parent said.