Pune Collector orders ‘rest houses’ along highways for migrants going home

These ‘rest houses’ will be set up with the help of local Gram Panchayats along Pune-Bangalore, Pune-Solapur, Pune-Nashik, Pune-Ahmednagar and Pune-Mumbai highways, and money for these will be made available from the State Disaster Management Funds, Collector Ram said in a directive issued to Tahsildars.

“Migrants workers, labourers who are stuck away from home in another state or district have been allowed to travel using the proscribed procedure. These are summer times and taking into account the need to provide them rest, water and food, Collector Naval Kishore Ram has passed directives to set up these rest houses along the highways,” said a statement issued by District Information Office, Pune.

“The proposal to set up the rest house has to be sent by the gram panchayat after taking approval of the Block Development Officer (BDO) to Tahsildar concerned and the latter should approve it immediately. After getting the approval, the gram panchayat should immediately start the rest house, where facilities such as tea, snacks, meals as well as toilets and resting area should be provided for the migrant workers. It should also have facilities for the migrant workers to wash their hands and sanitise them. Precautions must be taken to ensure that the labourers follow social distancing,” Ram has directed.

The Gram Panchayats have been asked to maintain a register to record visits by the labourers, and send the daily record to local Tahsildars. “Tahsildars and Block Development Officers should pay regular visits to ensure that good quality services are rendered by rest houses for the labourers,” reads the statement.

When asked if such provisions would encourage more labourers to walk home instead of waiting for the Union and the state governments to arrange transport facilities, Ram said: “It’s a fact that some persons are walking. The idea of the rest houses is not to encourage the practice, but ensure that if anyone is found walking on the road, he can get food, water and rest. This won’t be a very organised setup, the idea is to take a humane approach towards this.”

The Collector also said such travellers will be discouraged from walking long distances and will be asked to register with the authorities.

For the past few days, the Indian Railways has started operating ‘Shramik Special’ trains from Pune. Three such trains took about 2,400 stranded persons to Uttar Pradesh and 1090 to Madhya Pradesh since Thursday.

However, there are tens of thousands of others who are still waiting to go home, and a big chunk is setting off on 1000-km journeys on foot or bicycles. According to authorities, about 68,000 migrants have registered with authorities to obtain a transit pass.