The miseries of thousands of migrant workers, farm labourers returning from their villages to earn their livelihood in Jammu & Kashmir are far from over.
On Thursday, hundreds of these workers stranded at a quarantine centre in Vijaypur area of Samba district created ruckus after they were denied Covid-19 testing facility.
In a free for all situation, the stranded passengers uprooted counters, stalls and other furniture kept there at a makeshift testing facility inside the quarantine centre. Security personnel deployed at the quarantine centre, were outnumbered by the rush of stranded workers. According to official sources, “around 2300 passengers were present in the area at the time of the incident”.
Official sources said, “for the last five to six days an average number of 500-600 passengers, majority of them brick kiln workers, farm labourers were reporting at the quarantine centre”.
In the absence of adequate testing facilities, more than 2000 migrant workers were stuck there. They were blaming the local officers for not having adequate testing facilities to clear the rush of stranded workers from the centre.
Soon after the incident, video footage of the ruckus went viral on various social media platforms where security personnel were seen struggling to contain the situation for a long time. Senior district and police officers were rushed to the spot to prevent the situation from taking any ugly turn.
Incharge nodal officer of the administrative quarantine centre Kamalpreet Singh told The Pioneer, “ruckus started around 1.30 p.m on Thursday after the testing team exhausted their daily quota of 200-250 tests as per the availability of testing kits”.
He said, “as per the guidelines, no passenger can be granted permission to proceed further to their destination without undergoing mandatory Covid 19 screening”.
He said, “due to heavy influx of migrant and farm labourers the rush of passengers was accumulating and resulted in chaos inside the centre”. He said, the Deputy Commissioner Samba and SSP, Samba also reached the centre and tried to pacify the stranded workers. He confirmed, no one was injured during the ruckus.