Set up testing centres at all ISBTs, says HC

New Delhi: Anticipating an influx of migrant travellers after Unlock-4, Delhi high court on Monday ordered the AAP government to set up testing centres at each of the interstate bus terminals of the capital.

A bench of justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad noted that in view of Unlock-4, under which the Centre has permitted all intrastate and interstate movement, “Delhi government ought to take urgent steps to ensure that testing facilities are set up at all the interstate bus terminals and railway stations.”

The court said such testing centres should be up and running immediately “as the migrants are returning to Delhi from various parts of the country to earn their livelihood, and many of them may be asymptomatic carriers of the virus and will, therefore, need to be tested and quarantined, as the case may be.”

It gave the government a week to set up the facilities with “adequate testing capacity, depending on the inflow of the passengers” after government’s counsel Satyakam informed the bench that a May order by Delhi Disaster Management Authority that deals with the entry of any individual in Delhi and the protocol to be followed in case of such individuals, including migrant workers, still holds good.