COVID Surge In Odisha: Teachers To Guard Border Areas Of Malkangiri

Malkangiri: The Odisha government on Wednesday directed the Malkangiri district administration to deploy teachers and lecturers to guard the bordering areas with Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh due to the precarious COVID-19 situation in the neighbouring states.

As per a government directive, the teachers of eight schools and lecturers of seven colleges in the district will be deployed to check the influx of migrant labourers in the border areas of Motu block. These teachers and lecturers will be supervised by the local administration.

The Project Director of District Rural Development Agency (PD DRDA), Balamukund Bhuyan, told the media that 11,983 migrant labourers have entered Odisha through the border area of Motu block so far. Of these, 5,977 belong to Malkangiri district, 5,177 to Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Koraput, Ganjam and Khurda districts and the remaining 839 are from West Bengal and Bihar.

Bhuyan the school headmasters and college principals were instucted to immediately ask their respective staff to proceed to the border areas and keep a watch on migrant workers. The Block Development Officer (BDO) of Motu will take action against any teacher or lecturer for dereliction of their duty.

On police measures, SP (Malkangiri) Rishikesh Khilari said policemen are keeping constant vigil on the border areas of Motu and Chitrakonda blocks.

The SP further stated that the migrant workers who have returned from the two neighbouring states will be sent to 14 days of mandatory quarantine.

He also requested the people of the neighbouring states coming to Malkangiri district to voluntarily report for COVID-19 test.