The 24 coach superfast Jalandhar Daltonganj train with more than 1100 migrant workers reached Daltonganj today around 9.30 AM.
Railway sources said the train had a run over episode at Bihar’s Nabi Nagar railway station where cattle came under the wheels of the train causing some delay there.
India has 130 locations which are red from the point of view of coronavirus and three locations Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Patiala are right in the state of Punjab and incidentally two trains are to come from Punjab to Daltonganj and one of the two reached here today while Ludhiyana Daltonganj superfast will be arriving here tomorrow.
DC Shantanu Kumar Agrahari reached Daltonganj railway station and took stock of the preparations made for the arriving migrant workers.
Agrahari said, “As Palamu is having trains from red zones like Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Surat it has been decided to impose a strict ban on any kind of movement pedestrian or by bike/ vehicle from 7 at night to 7 in the morning.”
He said, “It should be seen as a night long curfew and this will be here till May 17. There cannot be any movement except of ambulances etc.” Any flouting of it will be most strictly dealt with said DC as he said, “It is for the good of 20 lakh people of Palamu.”
He said, “We cannot afford luxury of walking down the streets when more than 2200 people from Ludhiana and Jalandhar the two big red zones would be here from tomorrow itself. More than 1100 out of this 2200 have already reached Palamu.”
All migrant workers will have to be in governmental quarantine Agrahari said refusing facility of home quarantine saying this may be easily violated. City commissioner Dinesh Prasad a senior IAS officer also sat there for hours monitoring things.
SP Ajay Linda said, “One of my SDPOs Sandip Kumar Gupta is right at Daltonganj railway station while another SDPO Surjit Kumar is at Chiyanki air strip to oversee bus journeys of these passengers for their respective blocks here for a compulsory governmental quarantine there in their respective blocks/ sub divisions.”
He said the passengers are most disciplined as they are maintaining social distancing themselves. The SP said, “We have made a two layer security arrangements one inner at the railway station where are RPF and GRP while for outer district police are manning outer portion of the railway station and Chiyanki air strip.”
He said around 90 cops and officials are on the job manning railway station and Chiyanki air strip.
Linda agreed that some RPF officials began to get irritable who were asked firmly by him to perform coolly.
Sources said some passengers wanted to drink water from water stands on the railway platform which the RPF prevented them which Linda said was allowed after his intervention.
SDPO Gupta said every migrant labourer is under our close watch here and we are trying too hard to have protocols of lock down followed.