UP Govt's Migrant Workers Evacuation Plan Sees Hundreds Of Labourers Crowd Buses To Reach Home
After scores of migrant workers were seen taking the long and hard road home on foot, there was an outrage with people critising the handling and treatment of daily wage labourers.
With no source of income in sight, the workers were forced to head to their native villages after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day curfew which kicked in on March 25. The lockdown meant no way to travel but foot.
Reuters
The government of Uttar Pradesh finally took cognizance of the issue and arranged for 1,000 buses to ferry migrant labourers who are stranded on the border districts owing to a countrywide lockdown.
Officials of the Transport Department, bus drivers and conductors were contacted on Friday night to help the people who were stranded in Noida, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahar, and Aligarh, among other places, according to the spokesperson of UP government being quoted by news agency PTI.
"Till late in the night, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was busy issuing instructions for arranging buses for the purpose," the spokesman said, adding that the chief minister also directed officials to arrange for food and water for such people and their families.
PTI
Hundreds of migrant workers continued to pour into Uttar Pradesh from Delhi-UP border in the morning while the UP State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) continued to ferry them to their destinations from different areas of Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar.
Lucknow: Long queues seen at Charbagh Bus Station as people returning from different states wait to board their respective buses for their native places in Uttar Pradesh. State govt has has arranged buses to ferry them to their respective districts. #CoronavirusLockdown pic.twitter.com/1Ftkaye96h
¡ª ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 28, 2020
The huge influx of people wanting to go back home meant that social distancing quickly went out of the window at the bus terminals. As crowds packed the buses, the administration later Saturday started thermal screening of the passengers at ISBT?Kaushambi.
The development saw mixed reactions from people on Twitter - some lauding the UP government, while others questions unorgainsed manner in which things were carried out, thus compromising the whole social distancing drill.
BIG BREAKING: UP Govt deploys over 200 buses to transport back the stuck migrant workers in Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad.
¡ª Prashant Kumar (@scribe_prashant) March 28, 2020
The buses will ply every two hours from the borders in Ghaziabad and Noida.
The government wakes up after relentless reporting by journalists. pic.twitter.com/cFxrbs2003
@ArvindKejriwal @republic @narendramodi @KapilMishra_IND @HMOIndia @drharshvardhan @hansrajhansHRH CM sir!this is Sahbaddairy near sector 28,rohini.were DTC buses for employees on govt services or for ferrying PPL of UP,Bihar to https://t.co/8F6r7pEado this lockdown? pic.twitter.com/q65vRaCe8K
¡ª Malik@Bhagat Singh (@cricketmalik) March 28, 2020
At a time when crook Kejriwal has thrown all the migrant labourers in Delhi on UP borders, @myogiadityanath's UP Govt. has arranged for 120+ sanitized buses, which have picked 6500+ migrant workers from Delhi border & dropped them to respective districts. More buses coming. pic.twitter.com/87GlPoOAig
¡ª Shubhendu (@BBTheorist) March 28, 2020
Step 1 media highlights the migration
¡ª Shank (@sshankp) March 28, 2020
Step 2 Delhi govt picks them from entire city drop them at UP border
Step 3 UP govt announce buses to bring migrants from these borders to their homeland
Step 4 more people come out to go back to their home#PerfectDisaster
Most of the Delhi-Meerut expressway is filled with these daily wage workers who have decided to walk back to their homes in UP. Evacuation buses have been put in place by the UP govt at the border, so now they¡¯re all walking to the border instead and hoping they can find a bus. pic.twitter.com/90s3RVZRPz
¡ª Nalini ? (@nalinisharma_) March 28, 2020
While it is great to see state governments finally come forward to help the migrant workers, the timing and the manner with which the process is being carried could have major implications.
With workers in numbers crowding buses, it takes the whole concept of lockdown out of the equation. And assuming even if one worker might have contacted virus, it puts many other people at risk.
The whole process could have been better planned and migrant workers could have been ferried back to their homes systematically. The miscommunication between UP and Delhi governments also hasn't helped matters.
