Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Tuesday came to the rescue of over 50 Jharkhand labourers, who were stuck at Bilaspur in the neighbouring State while returning home from Maharashtra amid the Coronavirus pandemonium.
The labourers, mostly tribal, were stuck in Bilaspur as all trains to Jharkhand have been cancelled to prevent the entry of the lethal virus in the State, sources said.
Responding to a tweet by Chief Minister Hemant Soren, in which he sought help of his Chhattisgarh counterpart in helping the labourers, Baghel tweeted, “Our Government will render complete support to the labourers. We will also ensure that they get food during this period and are safely escorted to Jharkhand.”
Several districts in Maharashtra – one of the worst-affected States in India with nearly 100 cases of Coronavirus – have been locked down leaving thousands of daily wage labourers jobless. Labourers from Bihar and Jharkhand often migrate to the developed states for employment. However, most of them had to return home during the lockdown as they were left with no means of eking out a living. While only 50 odd labourers were stuck in Chhattisgarh, there is no count of the total number of labourers who have returned to Jharkhand since the Coronavirus outbreak. The Government has strengthened the screening process in Jharkhand in a bid to ensure that no infected person goes unchecked, and further spreads the virus here.
However, activists and doctors say that the labourers returning from other States should also be screened and quarantined for at least 14 days as they could be potential carriers of the virus.
Meanwhile, all hell broke loose in suburban Ranchi’s Bundu subdivision after the police learnt that at least 11 foreigners, including a few from China, were staying at a Mosque in the area without providing any intimation to the local authorities.
Police on Tuesday sent all 11 foreign residents to Musabani Training School in East Singbhum, where they will be quarantined.
Deputy Superintendent of Police, Ajay Kumar said that all the police were scrutinising the documents of the foreign residents.The Government has by now collected samples of 77 Coronavirus suspects here and 61 of them have come out negative.
However, the results of 16 more samples sent for lab tests are awaited, and the officials here have their fingers crossed. Jharkhand is surrounded by Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal, and all three States have reported positive cases of COVID-19 in the past one week.