Panaji, May 17 (IANS): Women and senior citizens who arrived in Goa from Delhi by train on Saturday, were made to sleep on chairs at the Jawaharlal Nehru football stadium in South Goa, where they were kept in isolation after being screened for COVID-19, Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat said on Sunday.

Kamat also said, that the Goa government should treat local residents who are travelling back to Goa under duress, with a "sense of humanity".

"It is extremely shocking to know that our own Goan travellers including elderly people and ladies were given step-motherly treatment on their arrival at Madgaon station from New Delhi yesterday," Kamat told reporters in Panaji on Sunday.

"They had to wait till 9 a.m. today (Sunday) morning to receive their Covid test reports, after which they were allowed to move to their respectives homes today. This has exposed the claims of the authorities that adequate arrangements were made to take care of all the passengers arriving from other States to Goa," Kamat said, while urging Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to treat returnees to Goa with dignity.

According to Goa government protocol, all inbound train passengers are taken by special buses to a nearby government facility, where they are tested for COVID-19, after which they are ferried to the football stadium in South Goa, until their test results are declared.

After the results are out, those who have tested negative are sent for home quarantine, while the ones who test positive are immediately admitted to a deisgnated COVID-19 hospital in Margao town.

Responding to the allegations of discomfort caused to the train passengers, Sawant said, all train passengers henceforth would be taken to hotels, instead of the football stadium.

"This will happen today onwards. Food will also be arranged for them," he added.