Three barracks, TB hospital in Kharagpur sealed after jawans tested covid positive

Biswabrata Goswami

Statesman News Service

MIDNAPORE, 25 APRIL: The West Midnapore district administration has sealed off three barracks and a TB hospital in Kharagpur soon after nine RPF jawans tested positive for Covid-19.

The police have also restricted movements in the railway colonies near to the Kharagpur rail station, a senior police officer said.

To curb the spread of the dreaded virus, the district health department has started tracking the people who came in contact with the infected jawans. The railway health staff and officials are also carrying out an investigation to trace the persons who came in contact with the jawans. “Even we are looking for those who had handled the jawans' weapons. We have tracked some people and they have been sent to a quarantine center for observation. So far, we have placed 115 persons in quarantine”, said a senior railway officer.

Dr Girish Chandra Bera, chief medical officer of health in West Midnapore said, “All precautionary measures have been taken to contain the situation. We are examining the suspected people attached with the rail and who reside in the rail colonies near the barracks and TB hospital”.

Earlier 19 persons who came in contact with the jawans were taken in quarantine, while more 35 persons were taken to quarantine after the reports of the sample tests appeared positive.

At least nine of 28 constables of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) who reached Howrah station from Delhi earlier this month have tested positive for Covid-19.

A railway official said eight of the affected men are posted in West Bengal while one in Odisha. Further, among eight RPF personnel, six jawans are posted in Kharagpur, one person in Santragachi and another one in Uluberia. The RPF jawan posted at Balasore in Odisha is now admitted in the Aswini Hospital in Cuttack.

The 28-member RPF contingent — from the Kharagpur division of South Eastern Railway — had left for Delhi and Rajasthan on 20 March for zonal training of RPF jawans which railway officials termed “an important assignment”.

The group took the train from the national capital to Kolkata on 13 April and reached Howrah on the next day. Upon arrival, the RPF personnel took a bus to Kharagpur around 8am.

As the nationwide lockdown had come into effect on 25 March, the RPF contingent had been stuck in New Delhi. The members stayed at the barracks in Dayabasti, New Delhi, till 12 April.

“It was decided to run parcel special trains for transportation of essential goods during lockdown. Subsequently, the parcel special trains started from 31 March. Since there was scarcity of ammunition with RPF in SER, the ammunition collecting contingent was advised to move by suitable parcel train from Delhi. It is pertinent to note that the on-duty movement of armed forces was exempted from the restrictions imposed during the lockdown,” the railways ministry said.

Courtesy: Image from Deccan Herald.