by our special correspondent:
While central and state government are vocal about their preparedness for conrona virus naothing could havebeen spotted at India -bangladesh Border at Petrapole . No medical team , scanning system was seen at the land border where on average 3000 Bangladeshi nationals are entering the country.Interstingly poorly infrastructured Bangladesh left no unturned in scrrening enteringthe country from Benapol , the other side of the border in Bangladesh.
DESHER SAMAY had earlier reported that initially during the outbreak there was no infrastructure too. But after it was highlighted a meagre sytem was put in place to scan the people coming from Bangladesh. But within few days that system vanished and people from bangaldesh can freely enter to India through petrapole without any minimum scanning system.
According to the sources working in Petrapole landport many people from bangladesh are coming to India with suspicious heath condition . Absence of proper medical check let the immigration officials to allow these persons with valid visas to come to this country. “But is their physical condition is really the same as they are stating ? Many had high fever and temperature. It is very important for the government to set up a well equipped medical facility for scanning and quarantine of these visitors.” said an official of the Petrapole land port on condition of anonymity.
According to the source many workers from Bangladesh use to go to China and might have returned from there with bad health. As many of them come to India on medical visa there remains a chance that they might bring in the virus through this route.
Picture by -Partha Sarathi Nandi. 
Kartik chakrabarty , secretary of the custom clearing agents welfare association at Petrapole said ” We are working in extreme fear. We had heard there is strict medical vigilance at airpor and railway stations . But there is no such facility in India’s largest landport.
Even Bangladesh had set up a strong medical scanning unit at Benapole which clears fit persons entering Bangladesh. ” Other offcials working at border said many Bangladesi truck driver travel to other countries that are corona affected. They get easy unscanned access to their Indian counterpart increasing the risk of the transmission of the disease.
The immigration and customs department offcials had taken this very lightly . When asked about the absence of the scanning infrastructure many jeered if the virus will fly from China to Petrapole. However many Bangladesi national entering on valid passport was seen wearing mask.
They informed that they were suffering from common flu for which they had worn the mask. But is this true ? was it only common flu ? Now nobody can answer this as those person entered inside India unscanned.Many Indian labour go to china via Bangladesh and return in same route.
So one cannot say that the possibility of the virun entering the country through Petrapole will be a very distant dream.
