Amid talks of a complete lockdown in Maharashtra and other states to arrest the Covid 19 surge, large numbers of migrant labourers have started flocking to their home State. On Thursday early morning at around 3.30 am, a workers batch reached Ranchi from Mumbai in a Special Train. The workers reached Hatia railway station where the district administration had made elaborate arrangements for receiving the migrant workers. Around 1350 workers from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus reached the Hatia station.
The district administration had made elaborate arrangements with all passengers going for a rapid antigen test. Ranchi Railway Division CPRO Neeraj Kumar said, “Rapid antigen test was carried on all the passengers reaching Ranchi. The district administration had made elaborate arrangements. Dedicated teams of district administration were at Ranchi railway station for testing the passengers. ”
Sources said that the second wave of Covid infections is sparking another reverse migration of workers returning to their home states from places reporting sharp increases in cases.
Jharkhand is one such state to which people have started to return after several big cities imposed curbs, night curfews and lockdowns to tackle the second wave of Covid.
The workers claim that the situation is very disturbing in Mumbai and other cities. Anil Kumar Rai, who works as a supervisor at a textile mill in Mumbai and returned back to his native Palamu district recently said, “The second wave of corona is very dangerous as daily caseload is much larger than previous year. Also the mortality rate is higher. We decided to leave Mumbai as every day Maharashtra is making strict rules and we fear that on any day the government will announce lockdown in the state.”
Rai said, “To avoid last year's situation when the lockdown was announced without much information to the public , bringing all activities to a standstill. As all train services were stopped we were left with no other alternative but to hire private cars at higher fare for reaching our destinations.”
Sources said that each day, hundreds of migrants are returning to Ranchi and other parts of the state from Maharashtra, Punjab, Delhi and Telangana and dispersing to their homes.
For passengers reaching Ranchi and Hatia Junction there is a facility of corona test. The Railways are requesting passengers to carry out tests at test centres at Railway Junction.
Railway is also creating awareness about corona. As per corona protocol made by Disaster Management Authority, passengers have to follow corona protocol such as wearing masks, use of sanitizers and maintaining social distance.
However, sources said that due to rush of passengers from western States, corona protocol is not being followed completely.
The trains are running with full occupancies, however, the railway has discontinued the facilities of pantry cars in these trains. Passengers are advised to carry food packets from their houses.
