Relief for 10 cr migrants, tourists as Centre allows States to transport them by roads; new lockdown guidelines from May 4 to give some dists leeway
Two days after the Centre opposed in the Supreme Court any proposal to allow the migrant workers to proceed home as it posed a risk of coronavirus spread, the Government paved the way for their “home coming”. In a big relief to stranded people including migrant labourers, pilgrims, tourists and students, the Centre on Wednesday allowed the States to transport them to their homes by road.
In a letter to Chief Secretaries, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the movement should be after appointment of nodal officers and proper registering the details of persons and mutual agreement by the sending and receiving States.
However, the Centre has not permitted the use of railways for transport of these stranded people. As per the rough estimates, more than 1 crore migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal are stranded in Delhi, nearby industrial areas, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Later, the MHA said a new set of guidelines to fight Covid-19 will come into effect from May 4, which shall give considerable relaxations to many districts. Details regarding this shall be communicated in the days to come, said the MHA Spokesperson. “MHA held a comprehensive review meeting on the lockdown situation today. There’ve been tremendous gains & improvement in the situation due to lockdown till now. To ensure that these gains are not squandered away, the lockdown guidelines should be strictly observed till 3rd May,” MHA Spokesperson tweeted.
The movement of migrants to hometowns will depend on the possibility of retaining job and transportation through buses will be a huge logistical issue, observe many officials handling relief camps.
Earlier in March last week, when migrants were struck on roads in Uttar Pradesh from Delhi, the Uttar Pradesh Government had sent 1,000 buses and it took around a week to collect the labours trapped in highways.
The number of migrant workers will cross more than two crore when consider those stranded in southern States like Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It will be a challenge to send so many workers by road to remote villages of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
The two-page direction by the Union Home Ministry insisted on health check-up by the sending States and continued monitoring of the health status by the receiving states.
“All States/UTs should designate nodal authorities and develop standard protocols for receiving and sending such stranded persons. The nodal authorities shall also register the stranded persons within their States/UTs. In case a group of stranded persons wish to move between one State/UTs and another State UT, the sending and receiving States may consult each other and mutually agree to the movement by road,” said the Home Ministry.
The MHA insisted that persons would be screened and those found asymptomatic would be allowed proceed. “Buses shall be used for transport of groups of persons. The buses will be sanitised and shall follow safe social distancing norms in seating,” said the MHA also directing to the States on the way to the destinations to facilitate the movement.
The MHA also directed the receiving States to keep monitoring the persons and take periodic status of the health parameters. “For this purpose, such persons may be encouraged to use Aarogya Setu App through which their health status can be monitored and tracked,” said the Home Ministry.