Incoming challenge
in Tamil Nadu. In reality, the government had several gaps in its COVID strategy. One, it did not screen anyone coming into Koyambedu, Chennai’s main market for fruits and vegetables. The spread from this one market took the infection to at least 10 districts. The Koyambedu cluster was responsible for the late April and early May surge in the number of cases.
Opposition political parties fear that the opening of retail liquor stores will create new hotspots across the State. But with inadequate Central allocation to fight the pandemic, the State is left with no choice.
In another desperate move, it has increased the retirement age of government staff to 59. This follows orders freezing the Dearness Allowance (DA) anulling annual leave encashment.
An order of the Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department dated May 7 (G.O. (Ms) No.51) with regard to retirement age said: “This will apply to all those who are in regular service as on date and due to retire on superannuation from May 31, 2020. This order shall also be applicable to all teaching and non-teaching staff working in aided educational institutions and employees of all Constitutional/statutory bodies, public sector undertakings including all State Corporations, Local Bodies, Boards, Commissions, Societies etc.”
Reacting to the decision, P.K. Ilamaran, State president, Tamil Nadu Teacher’s Association, said that it was good for those who were to retire now because their DA would remain frozen. “Retirement a year later will mean that the pension will not be affected. But lakhs of youth who are waiting for a job will be hard hit. Already there is unprecedented unemployment. This move will mean one more year’s wait for them,” he said.
Prof. J. Jeyaranjan, Director, Institute of Development Alternatives, and economist saw this as a desperate move. “The State has limited means to raise resources.
Even a postponement, such as this one, is welcome as far as it is concerned,” he said. If the same situation continued, given the lack of space for any financial manoeuvrability, more desperate measures, such as deferring part of the salary of government staff, as was done in Kerala, and opting for a ways and means advance will be resorted to, he said.
The first week of May was of great relief for Kerala, with no deaths or new COVID-19 positive cases reported for several days in a row and 462 (or 92.59 per cent) of 499 people who had tested positive recovering and leaving hospitals. There were no positive cases in six of the total 14 districts; in four of the remaining eight districts there was only one positive case each. Only about 21,724 persons were under observation, and of them just 372 in designated isolation facilities.
But May was also sure to be a month of rising concern in Kerala, with already 4.2 lakh emigrants registering with the NORKA-ROOTS website by May 4 for returning home from at least 12 countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United States, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Singapore.
Similarly, in the first four days since registration started, 1.66 lakh Keralites stranded in other States also had registered in the NORKA website to return home, an operation that called for an entirely different and complex logistics if they were all to be monitored at the various border entry points in the State and their institu
tional or home quarantine ensured after proper medical check-up.
The largest numbers were from Karnataka (55,158), Tamil Nadu (50,863) and Maharashtra (22,515). People had also registered from Telangana, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. By May 4, as many as 28,722 people had applied for passes to travel to their home State, and though only 5,470 passes were issued in the first two days, many returnees were stranded on the way or at border points because of hurdles raised by the authorities in other States.
Though Kerala was not insisting on COVID-19 free certificates from those coming back from other States, the inter-state returnees needed travel permits to undergo medical screening in the States of their origins. Many could not afford private transport and therefore are forced to wait for public transport facilities to open after the lockdown.
INTER-STATE WORKERS
Meanwhile, the State also faced rising demands from inter-state migrant workers now camping in labour camps for facilities to return home. In a few places, for instance in Malappuram district, where 65,255 such “guest workers” (as they are called in Kerala) were residing, the labourers even organised a street demonstration, a first in the district, demanding immediate transport facilities. The neighbouring Kozhikode district, too, witnessed such demonstrations.
After negotiations spread over several days with the Centre, other States and Railway authorities, a few special train services were launched from May 1. Nearly 6,000 guest workers left for their homes in the first two days to Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha from various stations in Kerala.
However, many special train services were stopped abruptly after that as the home States of such workers denied approval for their immediate return as facilities for their arrival, including quarantine and further transport arrangements were reportedly not yet ready.
There are nearly 3.6 lakh guest workers in Kerala, and the State authorities say 300 to 400 special train services will be needed in the coming days to take all those who want to return back to their States.
The first trains to leave the State with guest workers saw a well-organised attempt by the Kerala government to identify those in the camps who wanted to return home, verify their documents, conduct medical checkups and transport them to the respective railway stations in KSRTC (Kerala State Road Transport Corporation) buses and see them off in trains with travel permits, tickets and free food packets to last their long, non-stop journey and to ensure that they followed social distancing norms throughout the journey.
At the same time, there was widespread confusion too among guest workers as the first few trains could accommodate only very few people. Also, a large majority of them were in camps where lack of information on how to register for their journey home or about train schedules and cancellation of already announced special trains were leading to desperation and panic reactions. There were also complaints that guest workers located in camps away from the major centres and workers who had come on their own into the State (and not as a group under an employer or contractor) were being left out of the entire scheme.
RETURN FROM GULF COUNTRIES
But surely, the most sensitive issue the Kerala government needed to tackle was the return of Keralites from other countries, especially those in the Gulf countries. The opposition parties have found in this an opportunity to pounce on the State and Central governments for the delay in providing transport facilities to those living now in desperate and dangerous situations in other countries, especially those in the Gulf region.
State government sources have said Kerala expected about five lakh Keralites to return home. The Central government has planned to bring back passengers according to a list prepared by the respective embassies, “strictly on ‘payment basis’”. Flights are to be operated from May 7 and it will take 45 to 60 days to bring back the first lot of at least two lakh Keralites by flights and naval vessels to the three major cities, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode.
As per early estimates, nearly 15,000 Indians are expected to return to the country during the first seven days from May 7. Nearly 64 flights are to be sent to 12 countries, six of them in the Gulf region, including the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman, and rest to the U.S., the U.K., Bangladesh, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. The maximum number of flights would be operated to Kerala and Tamil Nadu among eight other States.
Initially, 15 services are to be operated to Kerala, mainly by Air India and some other private operators, with each flight carrying about 200 passengers on an average. Naval vessels are also being pressed into service and can carry between 800 to 850 people. Already two vessels were on their way to Dubai on May 5, with, the journey from Dubai to Kochi expected to take three and a half days.
EXTENSIVE ARRANGEMENTS
Meanwhile, as Frontline had already reported, the State authorities have already made extensive arrangements for a mass return of Keralites from abroad, including provision of 1.6 lakh beds in surveillance centres, 70,000 rooms with toilets, plus an additional two lakh bed accommodation facilities, 5,610 ICU beds in government and private hospitals and 1,966 ventilators. Those who do not have symptoms are to be transported to their homes for a 14-day quarantine immediately on arrival at the airport. Those who do not have facilities to quarantine themselves at home are to be sent to government facilities or to hotel rooms if they are willing to pay for them. Those who show symptoms of the disease are to be sent to surveillance centres or hospitals.