Famished migrant workers look for foothold in buses to head back home

New Delhi: It was havoc-like situation at the highways connecting Delhi-NCR, as movement of thousands migrants workers continued on Saturday. Yamuna Expressway, NH-24, Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, Anand Vihar bus terminus witnessed a huge crowd as people were seen desperately trying to reach their native places.

Despite assurance of the government agencies to provide them with food and shelter during the lockdown, they are reluctant to stay. Locking of borders has also fuelled the fire as people walking on their own foot at bordering areas claimed to be stranded.

Considering the fact that those poor migrated families are not interested to stay, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh authorities have announced to ply buses for them. "To save us from a health crisis, we are at the brink of a humanitarian crisis," a political expert stated.

Earlier in the day, the Uttar Pradesh government announced that it has arranged 1,000 buses to ferry migrant labourers stranded in the border districts. The Delhi government also announced that 100 buses have been deployed.

Amid all the panic, no social distancing norms were being followed. However an officer said, "We have deployed our people with a thermal meter. Efforts are being made to ensure hygiene."

Although the police had made people stand in three queues, there was a steady flow of migrant workers. Many struggled to board the buses packed to the hilt.

"So far 300-400 buses have carried labourers," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Dinesh Kumar Gupta.

Meanwhile, the Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddh Nagar district administration have also started the private buses to ferry migrant workers and daily wage labourers to their hometowns. Ghaziabad and Delhi police remained on their toes to manage the crowd with social distancing, medical screening at Kaushambi bus depot and UP gate.

Kalanidhi Naithani, Senior Superintendent of Ghaziabad police said that they have asked the Delhi government and police not to allow anyone to cross the border but they are helpless.

"We have to deploy extra force from rural area and PAC to Kaushambi bus depot and highway to manage the workers and other passengers," said Naithani.

There are also reports from some areas of people being sent home in trucks, mini-trucks, canters and empty vehicles which had carried essential goods. "When thousands of people were gathered at UP gate in Ghaziabad on Friday night, we had to stop trucks that were returning after delivering goods to fill in with passengers," said a senior cop from Ghaziabad police.

Meanwhile, Deputy CM of Delhi Manish Sisodia met the people at Ghazipur border requesting them not to leave the city. District administrations and local police besides several self-help groups have also started distributing food packets, water and medicines to the people.

Santosh, a migrant labourer who works in a factory in Mundka is stuck at his room. "I am a native of Bihar and want to go home. My family is worried but there is no facility to travel and we don't know what to do," he told.

"I would have left at the earliest but we had no idea suddenly everything will be locked down. I want to go home and have no idea how. The government should open the rail facilities soon or else we will be stuck here," he added.

With no job to feed their families, running away to their native villages is the only viable option. Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra Hospital in Narela recently fired five sanitation workers on the pretext of their age, which has left them without money and food. While 15 days of their salary is pending, the women said they were given no concrete reason for the termination and told they were "too old to do their job".

One of the workers, who was fired said that she hasn't even reached 50 year of age. "We are sanitation workers and the moment the pandemic threat started, we were working there. However, on March 16 we were told to leave the hospital saying we were too old to work," she said.

Medical supervisor Manoj repeated the same statement adding that out of five at least two were aged. "There are protocols for such things. A contractor was changed as well, it is not in our hands," he added.

In Mukundpur village, more than 200 people are stuck without any ration. Mohammed Rakeem constructs building and is living with more than 200 labourers. Most of them hail from Bihar and are living here without their family. "We got a call earlier telling us they would provide us with ration but we have not received anything as of now," said Rakeem Saturday evening. Even though

both state government and police authorities are trying to provide food and ration in different areas, many areas are without food.

with inputs from abhay singh and rahul singh