Hyderabad: Ambulance vehicles making their way to Hyderabad with Covid patients from Andhra Pradesh, are being allowed to cross the border into Telangana since Friday night. The development comes in the wake of the Telangana High Court’s interim order barring the state government from stopping such vehicles at the border.
On Saturday, Telangana police personnel at the Andhra Pradesh borders, allowed patients not having the required permissions, to cross over after registering their details.
On Friday, two patients from Andhra Pradesh died in the ambulance vehicles they were traveling in, at the inter-state border near Kurnool. Telangana Police did not permit vehicles without valid online permits to cross the border.
At least 40 ambulances from Andhra Pradesh were forced to return back from the Pullur toll plaza since Thursday when they tried to cross the state border on the way to Hyderabad. A similar situation played out at the Ramapuram cross border post near Suryapet.
Telangana officials were claiming that large number of patients arriving from neighbouring states, particularly Andhra Pradesh, is putting pressure on bed availability and medical care in the state capital.
However, the Telangana High Court, on Friday, issued orders staying the state government’s guidelines on entry of Covid ambulances from other states.
The Court took up the matter for hearing after a retired IRS officer Venkata Krishna Rao filed a petition on Friday, that ambulances are being stopped or turned back, at the border, by Telangana Police.