Stranded migrants start pouring into govt shelters
NEW DELHI: A day after the city administration put a complete ban on movement of migrant workers within or outside Delhi, the newly built night shelters set up in government schools gradually started to fill up.
In addition to the existing 238 night shelters in the city, the Delhi government also converted 11 schools into night shelters to accommodate migrant workers amidst the countrywide lockdown, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said on Monday.
At the shelter set up in the Delhi government’s Ghazipur school, the number of occupants went up to 135 by Monday afternoon from just three on Sunday. The in-charge of the shelter, Subedar Khan, who on Sunday was seen pleading people not to leave the facility, was busy maintaining the diary entries of the new entrants. “Apart from lunch and dinner, we will also be providing tea and snacks to the people living here. Today, at least we have some work to do. Yesterday, we were sitting idle the whole day since there was no one,” he said.
While mattresses and blankets were available in all 21 classrooms that were turned into shelter rooms, officials demanded thermal screening of all those using the facility, but do not have the equipment to do so.
“Most of the people living here are those who could not manage to get a seat on any public transport facility to go to their villages in the neighbouring states. They all have come on foot from various borders, mostly from the Anand Vihar-kaushambi border. They were part of large crowds, so we have asked for thermal screening machines to be given at every shelter. Let us see if we get it,” said another official deployed at the shelter.
At the school shelter set up in Patparganj, the number of people using the facility was 140 on Monday afternoon. Mattresses and pillows were placed at a gap of about 1-2 metres from each other on the floor of every classroom. The facility has 30 shelter rooms with a total of 200 beds. “There are only two people living here who are originally from Delhi, rest all are natives of Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana,up and MP. Here, we have bathing and toilet facilities with hand wash. We also have sufficient sanitizer and masks that will last for 10 days at least,” said Baban Ghosh, the in-charge of the Patparganj school shelter.