Family from Mumbai stranded at Theni border for 12 hours

Madurai: A family of four returning to their native place in Theni district from Mumbai by bus had a rather harrowing experience at Devadanapatti village on Saturday. They were stranded in front of Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU), a makeshift quarantine facility for those returning from other states, for 12 hours before finally heading home.
C Shanmugavel, 30, working as a waiter in a hotel in Mumbai and his wife Adhilakshmi, 27, along with their two kids aged two and four were stranded in the city and struggling to make ends meet since the lockdown was announced.They had applied to travel to Tamil Nadu. A private bus, that had gone from Madurai to Rajasthan with guest workers on May 16 and was returning to Tamil Nadu, picked up 21 people including the family from Mumbai. At 6 pm on Thursday the bus started from Mumbai and after covering more than 1,400 km reached Vadipatti check post around 11.45 pm on Friday.
“The pass was valid only till Friday so we had to enter Madurai before midnight,” S Laxman, one of the two bus drivers said. The bus was accompanied by a police escort vehicle to the quarantine facility at MKU at around 1 am. But the couple and their kids were denied entry into the campus. The rest of the passengers were taken to the quarantine facility and asked to stay there till their test results for Covid-19 came. “The police officer who escorted us said that only those returning to Madurai will be allowed to the quarantine facility,” Shanmugavel said and added that the family was asked to find their way home.
Without any transport facility, they were stranded in the dark. An argument broke out between the bus driver and the police as the police asked the drivers to drop the family at Theni. “I told them that we only had a travel pass to travel till Madurai. Theni police would seize the bus if we entered that district without a pass. But we did not want to abandon the helpless couple with small kids in the night,” driver Laxman said.
The drivers asked the family to stay in the bus till morning or till they got help. The family managed to relieve themselves on Saturday morning at the quarantine facility and got breakfast after contacting the police control room at 10.30 am.. After the incident was brought to the notice of the district administration, a fresh e-pass was provided for the bus to take the family to Theni. They bus left for Theni at around 1 pm – 12 hours after the ordeal began.