Seeds of every state for itself -Karnataka government appeals to Centre to suspend flights from 5 states

K.M. Rakesh, TT, 29.05.20, Bangalore: Karnataka on Thursday appealed to the Centre to suspend flights from five states to contain the arrival of Covid patients, exposing potential inter-state flashpoints that could arise from the haphazard handling of the migrant crisis by the Centre.

The Karnataka government has specified flights to the state from Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Karnataka also extended for an unspecified period the ban on vehicles from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. The initial ban was to end on May 31. Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were excluded from the extension list as virtually no vehicles have been coming from there.

Haryana on Thursday re-sealed its border with Delhi — first sealed last month, then reopened — citing the spike in Covid-19 cases in the capital.

Karnataka law minister J.C. Madhuswamy told reporters after a cabinet meeting that the appeal for a ban on flights from the five had been made because a large number of people testing positive for Covid-19 had arrived from there.

“So we will not relax this ban (if the Centre accepts the proposal) until those currently in quarantine come out of it,” Madhuswamy said.