On the Morning of April 13, 2020, when the news of the first patient with Corona Positive spread like wild fire through social media across the state, a friend of mine with my own consent, put up in social media about my quarantine at a Govt. Center for Public Awareness. The intention was to encourage all who came in contact with the victim, specially from my own community, to contact the health authorities in the best interest of their family, the neighborhood, the society and people in general owing to one’s social responsibility, which instead backfired- posing me as a very negative and negligent person in performing my social responsibility.
I would now like to clarify in the best interest of upholding our social responsibility that I arrived at Dimapur on 23rd March, 2020 by Indigo flight from Delhi, just after the lockdown was announced and I voluntarily confined myself at my residence without any direction from any authority as such. On 31st March, after the outbreak of the Nizammudin gathering news, a list of around 500 people from North East got circulated in the social media where my name had appeared for being present in that area on 21st March which was because my vehicle had crossed the region on that date.
Eventually, I received a call on 1st April from the Govt. Health Officer to appear at their office at 11 AM on 2nd April, 2020 to which I sincerely complied. I found some other members whose names had appeared in the list were also present at the office. As some of them had already crossed the duration of 14-15 days, they were checked and sent back in front of me. Since my arrival had completed only 12 days on 2nd April, I was advised to get tested and to be Quarantined for another 2 days at the Govt. facility. Consequently, I will be sent home if the result of the test will be negative, or else further course of action will be decided in case of positive result, to which I sincerely agreed.
My test results arrived from Dibrugarh on the morning of 4th April and declared me Corona Negative. Hence, I was asked to go home since the test was negative and also my period of arrival from Nizammudin area had completed 14 days- which had been the basis on which I was asked to get tested. I further kept the test results confined to my family without making any hype, as any other like-minded citizens did in that list.
Only on 13th April, after the outbreak of the first Corona case of Mr. Raja Jain, my friends had asked my permission to publish my quarantine certificate to encourage others to do the same in the best interest of the society. I also found it very reasonable for the benefit of the society and allowed to reveal my test certificates, especially to encourage the Marwari Community to come forward and get tested and to tell them that the stay in State run Quarantine Homes are quite comfortable. Later, when a controversy erupted and started making rounds, we came to know that due to clerical errors, the admission date of 2nd April was mentioned as the Arrival date, which was impossible in the lockdown. And perceiving the arrival date as 2nd April, I was directed for another 14 days Quarantine for the second time which I over-looked since I simply saw the Negative Result in the certificate, kept it at my home and joined my regular activities.
While, as per Govt. directives, I request other citizens also who were in that list not to reveal their Test Report or invitation from the authorities, I also request all the concerned people to over look the clerical errors of my certificate. I also express my gratitude to those who are socially concerned in Public Interest.
Basu Damani
