DHADING: As many as 217 people who had been working in India have returned to their home district Dhading on Saturday morning.

Of the total returnees, 133 were stranded at Sunauli, India near Nepali border while 84 others had been placed in various quarantine centres in Rupandehi district.

Those who were stranded at Sunauli returned at their own expenses. Nilkantha Municipality had sent four reserved buses for bringing those in quarantine.

Rupandehi District Administration Office (DAO) in coordination with Dhading DAO facilitated the returnees stranded at Sunauli.

The returnees stranded at Sonauli include 79 residents of Nilkantha Municipality including 12 children, 23 of Siddhalek Municipality, 11 of Netrawati Dabajong Rural Municipality, two of Jwalamukhi Rural Municipality, and two others, all from Dhading. Sixteen others who had travelled together sharing the buses were from Nuwakot district, according to Dhading District Police Office.

Likewise, 84 quarantined returnees include 20 people from Nuwakot.

All the returnees are migrant workers who were compelled to return home after they lost their jobs as businesses shut down due to COVID-19 pandemic.

It has been reported that those who arrived in Sunauli border have neither been quarantined nor taken any tests for coronavirus.

According to Dhading's Chief District Officer (CDO) Asman Tamang, all the returnees from India would be compulsorily placed in quarantine centres at various places across the district.

Last Sunday, a total of 61 returnees from India arrived in Dhading.

Three others arrived at Malekhu in the district from Sunauli on Thursday and another three on the following day. They were directly sent to their home villages in Dabajong, ward chair Durga Shakya informed.