Rumours of another lockdown trigger rush back to home towns

Rumours that the government might implement another lockdown, to contain the rise in Covid-19 cases in Delhi-NCR, led to a rush for seats on Uttar Pradesh State

Rumours that the government might implement another lockdown, to contain the rise in Covid-19 cases in Delhi-NCR, led to a rush for seats on Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) buses in the second week of June.

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According to data maintained by the UPSRTC for the Ghaziabad region, state-run buses ferried at least 1,45,201 passengers out of the district between June 8 and June 14, as compared to 53, 247 passengers ferried between June 1 and June 7 from Ghaziabad to various towns in the state.

“In the past week (June 8 to June 14), there has been a sudden increase in the number of passengers travelling on UPSRTC buses from the Ghaziabad region. When we spoke to some of the passengers, they told us that they are heading home as there could be another lockdown in the region soon. During the past week, thousands of people have reached the bus terminal in Kaushambi and boarded buses to their home towns in Uttar Pradesh,” AK Singh, regional manager, UPSRTC, said.

The Central government has recently refuted some social media posts hat a lockdown would be imposed in Delhi-NCR again from June 18, while Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday categorically said there will not eb another lockdown. “Many people are speculating whether another lockdown is being planned in Delhi. There are no such plans,” Kejriwal tweeted.

As many migrant workers wanted to return home, the UPSRTC had to be rope in more buses to accommodate the rise in number of passengers, officials said. While over 2,444 trips were made from June 1 to June 7, the number more than doubled a week later with 5,115 trips being made between June 8 and June 14.

“There were a lot of talk in my neighbourhood about another lockdown, and I did not want to get stranded the way I was during the first lockdown. When I tried to go back home during the first lockdown, there was a heavy rush at the bus terminal and I could not leave. So I am heading home now,” said Mahipal, a 42-year-old garment factory worker. Mahipal, who lives in Loni, was at Kaushambhi bus terminal and was heading to his home town Bareilly on Monday afternoon.

The first nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25 to check the spread of Covid-19, and was extended four times with considerable relaxations made in the last two phases. Currently, the lockdown is only effective in containment zones until June 30.

Shakeel Ahmad, a daily wager who works at Muzaffarabad in Delhi, was also at Kaushambhi terminal looking for a bus to his home town Mahoba. “The first lockdown was announced all of a sudden, and I could not go home. Now when news about another lockdown is doing the rounds, I am heading home. I will try to return when the situation becomes normal,” he added.

Of the total 7,559 departures made by state-run buses between June 1 and June 14, a large number of passengers boarded buses from the Kaushambi terminal. The terminal accounted for 4,480 bus departures which ferried at least 14, 1396 passengers of the total 198,448 travellers, according to the corporation’s data.

For the past one week, Kaushambi terminal has been packed with passengers with many private bus operators also trying to get long-distance travellers. “Besides hundreds of UPSRTC buses at Kaushambi, many private buses were parked in our township lanes. They were regularly ferrying passengers to their home towns. We had to seek help from the local police, and no private buse was seen on the internal lanes on Monday,” said VK Mittal, president, Kaushambi Apartments’ RWA (residents’ welfare association).

The Kaushambi terminal, opposite to Delhi’s Anand Vihar, had witnessed a large outpour of migrant workers since the first lockdown was announced.

The UPSRTC officials said after Centre’s announcement refuting rumours, they are expecting the number of passengers to go down. “To cater to the rising number of passengers over the past week, we had deployed more buses. We now believe that there will be a decline in passengers numbers in the coming days,” Singh said.