No money to stay here, say migrants in Noida

Noida:

Noida:

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Anil Yadav, one of the hundreds of stranded migrant worker who hails from a remote village in Kannauj district, wandered the deserted Noida streets along with his family in search of transport. He had heard that he might get a pick-up at sector-62 to reach either GT road or Lal Kuan in Ghaziabad from where they may board a state transport bus for home.

However, even before they could make it there, the family of six that includes two children were hushed back by the police at sector-71, 4 km short of their target and 5 km from where they had started. When they were told that the area was restricted, they decided to head to Dadri bypass, some 30kms away.

“We have no other option but to go back home. There is no work, we have limited cash and the price of food and other essential items have soared. The shopkeepers won’t give us ration on credit. We have cash only enough to sustain only for a few days and people are saying that the lockdown may continue for months. At least back at out village we will be safe and have food to eat. We can also help our family back in the village attending to the farms,” said Yadav.

He adds that almost all his neighbours had already left; only a few families from Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal stayed back.

Panicked and confused since the lockdown was announced last week in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak, hundreds of migrant workers of Noida and Greater Noida along with their families left their rented accommodations.

Ajay Verma, another such migrant who hailed from Mahoba district, rested at Hindon bridge along with his family of eight that had three toddlers. The family rented a house at Farkapur locality near sector-77, and had been walking for Dadri bypass for past two hours.

“We left home for Lal Kuan but were told that police was caning people on the way. So, we are now going towards Dadri. I work here at a saloon in sector-18, which is closed. We don’t have much money, and even though our landlord is not asking for rent now, he just might later. Also, the ration being distributed is not enough for the entire family,” said Ajay, who along with many other families like him still had 25 km to reach the GT road.

At GT road, there were a number of stranded families waiting for hours to board a bus.

“We have been waving at all the buses and none stopped. We work in Alwar, Rajasthan and took a lift in a truck and reached Delhi this morning. From Delhi we walked till Dadri. We are to go to Lucknow, from where we will head towards our village in Ayodhya,” said Munsi lal.

Meanwhile, a number of families were stopped by the police near Dadri station road.

“We have got to know that a bus bound to Hardoi will reach Dadri bypass around 7pm, it’s already 6.30 pm and the police stopped us here. They said that there are already many people at the bypass. We don’t know what to do,” said Pawan Mishra, another migrant worker who hailed from Madhopur village in Hardoi district.

Here too the reasons for leaving were similar — the price of ration had soared and they were running out of cash.

While officials at UPSRTC stated that around 3050 buses were arranged to bring the stranded families stuck in NCR, they were taking only a limited passengers to avoid the crowding.

“We are sending more buses. About 220 buses had been rushed from Hardoi zone alone. But the orders are to not exceed 50 passengers per buses. Yesterday, a number of buses from Kaushambi were overcrowded and the passengers were later shifted to new buses,” said an official from UPSRTC, who did not wish to be named.

The police, who were asking families to return to their accommodations, said that there were rumours running about that there were not enough transport for ferrying passengers, and that people were scared about exhausting their ration.

“Since morning we saw families heading to different parts of the city, thinking they will get transport. We insisted them to return and told them that ration was being distributed and they only had to dial 112 or 100 for help. But the panic level is quite high,” said a police official at Sector-76.

Meanwhile, in a bid to provide shelter to those out on the road, the Noida district administration has set up makeshift shelters at 28 places across the city.

“Each of the shelters can accommodate 7,000 people at a time and will have food arrangements,” read an order by the District magistrate BN Singh.

District administration has been continuously keeping a tab on the shopkeepers to ensure that no one is selling essential goods for higher prices. On Sunday, officials registered an FIR against four firms at the Kasna police station which were selling sanitizers and other items for prices higher than the print rate.

Multiple enforcement teams headed by the chief development officer Anil Kumar Singh have been roaming around in local areas to ensure that no shopkeeper is selling items for more than the printed price. Two shops were fined of Rs 25000 and Rs 5000 in sector 25 of Noida for selling overpriced goods.