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KANNUR: A 70-year-old woman from Karnataka, who was staying with her granddaughter in Kerala-Karnataka border, died at her home on Sunday after Kanrnataka police denied entry to the ambulance taking her to the hospital in Mangaluru. This is the second such case in the last two days.

The woman, identified as Pathunji, who was a native of Bantwal in Dakshina Kannada, near Kerala border, was staying with her granddaughter at Udyavar in Manjeshwar Block, as she could not go back to her native place since the borders were blocked following the lockdown.

According to Aslam Kunjathur, the ambulance driver, the woman was in a poor health condition but the Karnataka police personnel posted at the border in Thalapady refused to give the ambulance permission to enter the state.

So she was brought back to her home and she died in the early hours of Sunday. The woman’s granddaughter was not in a position to take her to the hospital in Kerala in that condition, as their relatives are in Karnataka, and hence she was taken back home as requested by her, said the driver.

“I told the police that she was a Karnataka native who got held up in Kerala due to the lockdown but they were not ready to listen, which finally took a life,” he said, adding that such instances have become quite common at the border now.

On March 26, an asthma patient, identified as Abdul Hameed, from Thuminadu, near Thalapady had lost his life after the Karnataka police refused the ambulance entry to go to a Mangaluru hospital.

Though the lockdown is there, the Karnataka Government should change its attitude towards the patients being taken to the hospitals in Mangaluru and the border should be opened for them, said revenue minister E Chandrasekharan.

