JOIN USTake action against Kota DM for sending students to Bihar: Nitish to Centre
The District Magistrate of Kaimur in Bihar got an unusual alert from his counterpart in neighbouring Chandauli in Uttar Pradesh on Monday. The UP officer alerted the Bihar IAS officer that around 50 private vehicles, all from Kota in Rajasthan, were passing through eastern UP and entering the Bihar border near Kaimur.
The matter was brought to the notice of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who expressed his dismay how Rajasthan Government could send so many Bihari students (who were preparing for engineering and medical entrance examinations in Kota) to Bihar during lockdown.
“Sending so many people to their home State during lockdown is a clear violation of Union Home Ministry guidelines,” Nitish reportedly told his officials.
Soon thereafter, the Chief Secretary of Bihar, Deepak Kumar, wrote a letter to Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, protesting how the District Magistrate of Kota issued so many passes for private vehicles which came all over from Rajasthan to Bihar.
“Such travel of people during lockdown was avoidable, as it’s a violation of lockdown norms,” the top Bihar official told the Union Home Secretary.
Urging the Centre to issue necessary instructions to the Rajasthan Government, the Bihar Chief Secretary asked Bhalla to warn Kota DM, a 2012 batch IAS officer, for violating MHA guidelines for movement of people during lockdown.
Bihar has already received more than 1.8 lakh migrants (from different States) in the last week of March and kept them in isolation wards before allowing them to meet their family members.
“These students from Kota will have to spend 14-day home quarantine. Our officers will keep a tab on them using mobile app. If any of them show symptoms of coronavirus, they will have to give samples for test,” said Principal Secretary, Disaster Management, Pratyaya Amrit.
Kota already has reported 40 coronavirus cases. This is one district in Rajasthan where thousands of students from Bihar go there to prepare for IIT-JEE and NEET in different coaching institutes.