Kerala diaspora organisation to protest against 7 day compulsory quarantine

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 14 (IANS) A Kerala diaspora organisation in the UAE will stage a day-long protest before the state Secretariat here on Saturday against the manner in which passsengers from the Gulf country are being treated by both the Centre and state with all arriving international passengers being asked to undergo a week’s compulsory quarantine.

INCAS Youth Wing is angry because those who arrive especially from the UAE are those who have taken even the booster dose of the vaccines besides they have to carry a fresh RT-PCR test report too.

“Look what’s happening here, party meetings are being held throwing all Covid protocols to the wind and the irresponsible handling of the Health Department has led to the Covid spread and the hapless diaspora is being taken to task… this is nothing but declaring war on the diaspora, who often at good times are being referred to as the backbone of the state,” said a protester.

“It’s strange and rather unfortunate that whenever there is a spike in cases, the diaspora is the first to be taxed and this is done by the respective governments to just show some action has been taken to tackle Covid. We want this indifference shown towards us to end and hence we are expressing our displeasure by staging a protest here,” added an office-bearers of the organisation.

Kerala in the past few days has seen a massive daily increase of fresh Covid cases.

The ruling CPI-M has come under fire from several quarters as their various district party committee meetings are still being held in the run-up to the upcoming state party conference and the Congress has slammed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on this.

–IANS

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