COVID-19: Assam students' bodies urge people who attended the Markaz congregation to come out of hideouts, get tested

Two students' bodies of Assam appealed to people, who went into hiding after attending the Nizamuddin Markaz congregation in Delhi, to come forward and get tested. The appeal was made a day after the state's Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that the government could not reach 117 such people after their return to the state as their mobile phones were switched off. He had also said that the government was not getting the kind of support, it expected, from the families of the people.

Altogether 456 people from Assam had attended the congregation, of which 68 have not returned yet. The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) said there was no point hiding."They should immediately come forward and get tested. By going underground, they cannot save their lives and also that of people where they are hiding. There cannot be any logic behind hiding," AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi told this newspaper.

He asked the people not to be afraid of anything stating that the government was trying to reach them to save their lives. "There are also many others, who came from different parts of the country but went into hiding. They haven't realised the seriousness of the matter. We want them to surrender because when there is a community transmission of COVID-19, the lives of all of us will be at stake," Gogoi said.

He demanded the government take strong actions against those who helped the people to go into hiding. The All Assam Minority Students' Union (AAMSU) also appealed to people, who returned to the state from the Nizamuddin congregation and elsewhere, to voluntarily contact health officials or the police for a health checkup."If people don't cooperate, the government should identify and quarantine them," Azizur Rahman, advisor to AAMSU, said. He urged people to rise above religion and put up a united fight against COVID-19. He also urged the government to ensure that people being quarantined in hospitals had access to basic needs. Assam has so far recorded 20 positive cases, four of them in Delhi. Most of the people attended the Nizamuddin congregation.