Karishma Jha
Guwahati, 22 April 2021: As corona cases rise across the country, Assam has made the corona test mandatory for those who are coming from outside. However, a surprising case has emerged of the state’s Silchar Airport. Around 300 Air passengers fled from the airport without conducting mandatory Covid tests. Now the administration has decided to take action against them.

Silchar Airport is a small airport. In such a situation, the Health Department has arranged the corona test for the visitors of this airport at a nearby government hospital. Buses are also plying to take the passengers from the airport to the hospital, but despite this, 300 passengers got off the bus before reaching the testing centre. Now the district administration has decided to register an FIR against all these people for breaking the Covid protocol. A case will be registered against them under Section 188 of the IPC Act.

Additional deputy commissioner of Chachar district, Sumit Satavan, issued an official statement saying, “It is easy to trace the air passengers as they have already given their complete information while getting the tickets. We have taken their details from the Airport Authority and the process of filing an FIR against each one will start tomorrow. This is a violation of the Covid Protocol and will be punished. We are taking strict action so that no air passenger tries to do this in future.”

He also informed that every day about 700 air passengers are reaching Silchar Airport. Under the SOP, only those passengers who have come from states outside the Northeast will have a corona test. On Wednesday, 690 passengers were to be screened. Apart from the 300 passengers who fled, 6 of them were tested as corona infected.