PATNA-A Woman with her children breaks down outside Patliputra railway station while waiting for train to return to her village on Tuesday. Photo: Ashok Sinha
[the_ad_placement id=”adsense-in-feed”]– globalbihari bureau
New Delhi: The Centre has written to State governments asking them to provide “more clarity” about departure of trains and buses as “lack of clarity coupled with rumours caused unrest amongst the (migrant) workers”.
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In a communication to the States on Monday, Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) noted that fear of COVID-19 infection and apprehension of loss of livelihood were the main driving factors for the movement of stranded workers towards their homes.
Click here to see Official Communication to States
In order to mitigate the distress of migrant workers, the communication stressed on a number of measures that could be taken by the State governments, pro-actively in coordination with the Centre. These were:[the_ad_placement id=”content-placement-after-3rd-paragraph”]
- Operation of more special trains by pro-active coordination between States and with Ministry of Railways;
- Increase in number of buses for transporting migrants; allowing entry of buses carrying migrants at inter-state border;
- Arrangement of designated rest places, with adequate facilities for sanitation, food and healthcare, could be made by the States on routes where migrants are known to be already travelling on foot;
- District Authorities may guide workers moving on foot to designated rest places, nearby bus terminals or railway stations by arranging transportation;
- Special attention may be given to the specific requirements of women, children and elderly amongst the migrant workers;
- District Authorities may involve NGO representatives at rest places etc, to alleviate the notion of long quarantine at rest places. Workers may also be encouraged to remain at places where they are;
- Enlisting the migrants with their addresses and contact numbers. This may be helpful in contact tracing in due course.
The communication reiterated that District Authorities must ensure that no migrant worker had to resort to walking on roads or railway tracks to reach his/her destination. “They may request Ministry of Railways for running trains, as per requirement,” the MHA said. [the_ad_placement id=”sidebar-feed”]
