States create quarantine, relief centres for returnees
Bihar and UP, Odisha and West Bengal create quarantine centres, shelters at interstate border areas
NEW DELHI: As heartrending stories emerged of migrant workers trekking home long distances to the hinterland in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak and the ensuing lockdown, triggering concern they could spread the infection, state governments moved on the weekend to arrange food and transport for the returnees and to ensure they live in isolation for the mandatory 14 days.
States in the Hindi-speaking heartland, such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, created quarantine centres or shelters in interstate border areas. In Odisha and West Bengal, the authorities converted schools and cyclone relief shelters to keep returning migrant workers in quarantine to guard against the spread of the disease.
Local panchayat offices in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha were directed to quarantine the returnees outside the villages, preferably in government schools. Police and revenue departments were asked to assist panchayat offices, state government officials said. State governments also deployed Accredited Social Health Actvists to conduct surveys in villages to prepare a log of migrants who have returned, and make a note of their health on a daily basis.
Bihar, UP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have announced they would provide free food to the returning migrants. Maharashtra has halved the price of a Shiv Bhojan meal, consisting of two chapatis, rice, a vegetable and dal, to ₹5 per plate. Many voluntary organisations are also distributing food to returnees with the help of the police.
Tens of thousands of migrants, mainly daily wagers, from Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are returning to their villages in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh after losing their work in the wake of the 21-day national lockdown that started on March 25
According to 2011 census, around 54 million people migrate in search of work every year.
To help the distressed workers, the governments of UP, MP, Bihar and Odisha have arranged special buses at their borders with other states. The Haryana government has provided 1,000 buses to transport migrants from Delhi and Haryana borders to UP. The measures were put in place after the Union home ministry issued an advisory to state governments to arrange transport and food for migrant workers.
Trouble was reported on Sunday
from some isolation centres set up on the Bihar-UP border where people turned violent when the police barred them from heading home. A large number of workers also escaped from these centres by scaling the boundary walls, said district magistrate, Babua, Nawal Kishor Chaudhary. On Sunday, the Bihar ordered the release of about 800 migrants from isolation centres, saying arrangements will be made to quarantine them in their villages. “We are arranging buses so that they reach district headquarters,” the DM said.
LONG ORDEAL
In Bihar’s East Champaran district, the police caught 14 migrant workers on their way back from West Bengal, locked in the goods compartment of a pickup van. “When our factory got shut on Wednesday, our factory owner arranged a pick-up van for us to return home,” said Sanauddin Khan, one of the rescued workers. Abhay Kumar, station house officer of Motihari police station, said the workers had managed to get there by “hiding themselves in the van and dodging the police...” on the way.
Premnarayan Ahirwar, 32, a resident MP’s Tikamgarh district, returned from Gurugram, 550 km away, with his wife and 30 other workers on Saturday evening. They started eight days ago.
“We would walk four to five hours at a time to cover 15 to 20 kilometers before taking a break on the roadside or at any dhaba... In between, we took rides in trucks, taxis and tractor trolleys. All of them charged a lot of money from us...,” Ahirwar said.
Vishal Sahani, 24, of Piprabasant village in UP’s Gorakhpur district, travelled with two colleagues for nine days from Hyderabad to reach Prayagraj, a distance of 1,400 kms. The Telangana state lockdown started on March 22. “...our landlord asking us to vacate the room we shared. We are yet to reach home,” said a teary-eyed Sahani.
Sibhas Das, 22, travelled 400 kms from Madhubani in Bihar, where he worked, to reach West Bengal’s Murshidabad district along with eight others.
ISOLATED AT HOME
Ram Pravesh Sahni, 45, of Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district, is feeling
like an alien in his own village.
“They (village elders) are not even allowing me to meet my family,” said Sahni, who travelled for five days from Ludhiana after the closure of the textile factory. “They have told me to stay in a government school till doctors declare me Covid-19 free. There are nine members in my family and we don’t have separate rooms. I am confined to one corner of my house. Even the hospital that I went to doesn’t have an isolation ward.” Many families are still waiting for the return of people . “We have not heard from my 21-year-old son Anil Kumar Bhartiya, who works in Mumbai, since he started for home from Mumbai on March 23...his mobile has gone dead...,” said Bhim Singh, a farmer in Prayagraj.