Delhi govt shifts migrants from river banks to shelter camp

The Delhi government yesterday asked police to shift migrant labourers residing on the banks of Yamua river near the Kashmere Gate bus to a shelter home.

The police arrived at the Kashmere Gate area in the afternoon with buses to relocate the labourers, who were stranded with no money and food after a 21-day nationwide lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 23.

The over 2,000 labourers had no facilities of drinking water and toilets. They got food when it arrived at the nearby night shelters.

The place where they stayed for more than 10 days is just 2km from the residence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lt Governor Anil Baijal.It is close to 10 night shelter homes run by the Delhi government.

In a series of tweets, Kejriwal said while about a million people were being provided cooked meals, some were so poor that they were unaware about the government schemes.

“Migrants gathered at the Yamuna Ghat. Arrangements have been done for their stay and food. They have been ordered to shift immediately. There is no shortage of food or shelters. If anyone is hungry or homeless, then let us know,” Kejriwal said.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said all the migrant workers would be kept at the shelter and food will be provided them.

If any worker anywhere in Delhi faces any problem, the government will take care of them, he said.

Sunil Aledia, founder member for the Centre for Holistic Development, who works for homeless people, said: The government has now taken them to a safe place and now there will be very less chances of people contacting Covid-19.”

Asked about the number of people in each night shelter, he said: “The night shelters with capacity of lodging 50 people have now been allocated 16 beds each as per the social distancing norm, thus, bringing down the number of occupants to less than half.”