COVID-19: Haryana Villages Keep Off Outsiders With Fences & Guards

Haryana villagers have been keeping away outsiders by building temporary checkpoints at the entry points.

Haryana villagers have been keeping away outsiders by building temporary fences at the entry points.

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj

With the fear of coronavirus reaching rural Haryana, the locals in several areas have set up barriers at the entry and exits of their villages and are manning these checkpoints 24x7 to keep outsiders away.

Over 40 people have been detected positive with the virus in the state. Meanwhile, Chief Minister ML Khattar has sealed the inter-state borders to prevent the influx of migrant workers from Delhi and the neighbouring states.

But the panic in rural parts of the state have made the locals take it upon themselves to protect their own villages.

In Rohtak’s Indergarh village, a group of men alternate shifts and stand guard at the entry to prevent any outsider from going inside. The other routes to the village have been blocked using trolleys parked across the road.

Local volunteers are only allowing those people to enter the village who have some emergency needs, but only after making them wash their hands with sanitizers.(Photo: The Quint)

Ashu, one of the locals who has volunteered to guard the entry point of Indergarh village, says, “If a doctor or anyone with an emergency need wants to go into the village, we are making them wash their hands with sanitizers and only then allowing them to enter. Otherwise, we are not letting anyone else enter the village.”

Similar scenes were witnessed in villages of Jind and Fatehadbad districts in Haryana. In Jind’s Amarheri village, a group of locals have divided themselves at five different entry points. At the entry points, ropes have been hung across the street as a fence to keep away outsiders.

Locals have put up ropes across the street to stop outsiders from going inside the villages.(Photo: The Quint)

A poster hung on the rope reads: “Please stop. Everyone must follow the lockdown.”(Photo: The Quint)

One of the volunteers, Subhash, said, “We guard the entry points from 7 am to 10 pm. If someone needs to meet anyone urgently, we ask the villagers to come outside and meet them. We don’t allow any outsider to go inside the village.”

Subhash added, “If the villagers need any ration, the panchayat has made arrangements for the items to be delivered to their homes.”

In Fatehabad’s Kajal Heri village too, locals put up fences made of tree branches or parked their bikes, tractors or carts across the roads.

Locals guarding their village by placing a tree trunk across the street.(Photo: The Quint)

In a Fatehabad village, locals park vehicles across the road to block outsiders.(Photo: The Quint)