UP govt’s mandatory Covid test policy delayed return of migrants: Pune commissioner

On Thursday, thousands of migrants from Uttar Pradesh, working at Shiroli industrial area in Kolhapur, came out on the Mumbai-Bangalore Highway and blocked the road, demanding transport arrangements to return home.

As per local officials, while nearly 6,000 migrant workers from UP wanted to go back home, the administration and the Railways operated only two trains on Thursday, taking 1,450 passengers each to Balliya and Prayagraj. This led to ruckus among the stranded workers, district administration and the police. District officials brought ths situation under control by promising that more trains will be plied to UP in the coming days.

The situation is not very different in Pune district, where as many as 1.12 lakh stranded migrant workers have registered with authorities for inter-state transport, but only 16,064 people have been sent by the administration via 13 trains operated until Thursday evening. As per the administration, in addition to these, 17,290 stranded migrant workers have been sent to neighbouring states via 1,043 buses operated until now.

The unavailability of trains – and lack of information about the plying schedule – has prompted thousands of the migrants to leave the city with whatever means available to them. As reported by The Indian Express earlier, many migrants are paying as much as Rs 6,500 per person for a bus to Lucknow and about Rs 3,500 for a spot in a truck, which carries as many as 85-90 persons crammed in the belly of the vehicle or on its roof, violating several transport rules on its way.

“The issue is that we can’t ply a train until the respective receiving state gives us the permission to send the migrants. There is an established process for operation of trains and we are following it. It’s true that we have not been able to send as many trains so far, especially to Uttar Pradesh. The UP government was earlier not ready to accept migrants without testing and hence trains could not ply. This created a backlog,” said Mhaisekar.

He said that after compiling a list of stranded migrants who want to go back to a certain state, the number is shared with the nodal officer of that state. Once consent is received from the state, the railway administration is requested to ply a train to ferry the migrants back home. “There are some issues and we are trying to resolve them. For instance, since there was no special train for Jammu and Kashmir from Pune, we sent students via buses to Nagpur, from where they will take a train to J&K,” said Mhaisekar.

Pune Police Commissioner K Venkatesham said the city police was taking active steps to ensure that anxious migrant workers do not take the drastic step of walking thousands of kilometres back to their homes.

“Since many of them choose to take the road in the night to escape the heat in the day, our officials are patrolling the roads in the night. If such groups are found, they are taken to shelters and provided food with the help of NGOs. We are also getting PMPML buses from the corporation and we are making efforts to send them back home with dignity,” said Venkatesham.

Pune Division favours opening up of industrial activities outside containment areas

As the state government has sought suggestions from district collectors across the state about the next phase of lockdown post May 17, districts in Pune Division have favoured opening up of industrial activities outside containment areas, said Pune Divisional Commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar.

“Our goal is that after May 17, most of the industrial units should become functional. There will be controls on commercial activities and curbs on movement in the containment zones announced by the municipal commissioner and district collectors, but in other areas, opening up of activities will be done and we are sending the plan to the state government,” said Mhaisekar.