Wait for migrants continues as district officials find ways to house them
New Delhi: After several days of having to camp outside screening centres in Delhi, migrant workers waiting for their medical check-ups before boarding the train back home are now being housed at the centres itself or at shelter homes close to the centres.
For the past several days, migrant workers in the Capital who had registered to travel on Shramik Special Trains were not being allowed into the screening centres despite having proper registration documents.
According to several such workers, who were forced to camp outside one centre in East Vinod Nagar, the officials on ground had told them that there were not enough trains to send them back.
"They told us to come back tomorrow as all trains for today had already been filled up," one migrant worker outside the RSBV school said on Thursday.
Arun Mishra, DM of East District said that district officials had decided to house these migrant workers at the screening centres in case there are more waiting after trains for the day are filled up. "Just on Thursday, we had housed around 250 workers in the screening centre," Mishra said.
Mishra added that district officials are trying to accommodate and find shelter for all migrant workers who are unable to board the day's trains. "We take most of them to shelter homes near the screening centres but some of them say they are willing to go back to their rooms nearby."
However, the registration process for migrant workers remains to be riddled with issues, which has led to prolonged and frustrating waiting times for tens of thousands of migrant workers in the Capital, waiting to return home. For instance, thousands of migrant workers who have registered online and received confirmation are having to wait for weeks before getting a call to screening centres.
As a result, many stranded workers are arriving at the screening centre, where they are physically registered before being boarded on the Shramik trains. This was observed at screening centres at the Mehrauli-Badarpur border. District officials said that registration glitches are the domain of state administration officials.
The Millennium Post had earlier reported that thousands of migrant workers were registering online but not receiving their confirmation messages even after two weeks of waiting. Out of frustration, some leave the Capital on foot and some have no option other than to wait.
As for the registration glitches, district officials maintain it is the state administration's domain and the DUSIB, which is in-charge of the registration process is not aware of this issue. "We are just compiling registration data and sending to state and district authorities. Theses must be addressed by the state nodal officer for migrant workers," one DUSIB official said.
Several calls and messages to PK Gupta, Social Welfare Principal Secretary and Delhi nodal officer for migrant workers went unanswered. And Gupta is yet to answer a detailed list of questions on the issues with the registration process.
