As migrants tried to flee Delhi, Kejriwal govt worked overnight to clear up Anand Vihar bus terminus

The scene at east Delhi’s Anand Vihar, which borders Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad, changed overnight, with just around 2,000 migrant workers at the spot on Sunday,

The scene at east Delhi’s Anand Vihar, which borders Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad, changed overnight, with just around 2,000 migrant workers at the spot on Sunday, as compared to over 50,000 on the previous day.

HT Image

A gathering of tens of thousands of migrant workers from across the city, walking towards Anand Vihar bus terminal to cross into Uttar Pradesh had taken officials on the ground by complete surprise on Saturday.

Jobless, without money to pay for food or shelter in the wake of a 21-day nationwide lockdown announced to curb the spread of Covid-19, workers tried to return home in droves. There was just one problem. They had no way to get there, till Delhi’s neighbouring states began announcing special buses to help them reach their destinations.

All the work to decongest the Anand Vihar-Kaushambi stretch began at 11pm on Saturday when the Delhi government pressed around 570 buses into service, the Uttar Pradesh government sent around 1,000 buses, Haryana around 400 buses.

To further reduce migrant workers leaving or entering the Capital, the city administration suspended the movement of DTC and cluster buses from the Sunday afternoon, except a few that were ferrying workers engaged in essential services.

As a result, on Sunday alone, the Delhi Police impounded as many as 152 cluster buses after finding migrant workers in them.

The district magistrate (east) on Sunday also began filing police cases against transport officials for ferrying migrant workers in cluster buses without authorisation.

“It was an overnight operation, and by 5am on Sunday, Anand Vihar was mostly cleared. Our DTC and cluster buses were deployed to ferry people to areas which were within the 50-70kms radius of Anand Vihar. The entire operation was carried out in coordination with the Delhi Police and the UP and Haryana state governments,” Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot said.

“For longer routes like Bareily and Kanpur, the Anand Vihar ISBT was opened up to allow private buses sent by the UP government and ensure the orderly movement of passengers with appropriate social distancing,” he said.

Reports from the transport department, which HT have seen, showed that the Delhi government alone ferried around 30,000 passengers overnight, with most buses (241) being deployed on the Anand Vihar-Lal Kuan route.

“We have been told that UP buses are waiting at Lal Kuan in Ghaziabad to take us to the interiors of the state. I have to go Itawa,” said Jagtap Singh, who worked in a toy factory in Shahdara. He spent the entire night shuttling between the Anand Vihar and Kaushambi bus terminals but failed to board a bus due to the crowd.

On the other routes, the Delhi government had deployed 83 buses to Hapur, 26 to Sikandrabad, five to Bulandshahr and one each to Ghaziabad and Modi Nagar — all in Uttar Pradesh.

Gahlot, who is also Delhi’s revenue minister, said the local police and all area district magistrates and sub-divisional magistrates were asked to seal all inter-state and district borders within Delhi from Sunday.

Even railway tracks were manned by police and civil defence volunteers. Around 400 police personnel and 800 civil defence volunteers were deployed outside Anand Vihar bus terminal and its adjacent roads, border points, railway lines and points from where people were found to be sneaking in or out.

The number of pickets were hiked multifold and paramilitary forces were deployed to help stop the movement of migrant workers.

“The authorities of the neighbouring states took similar steps, as they also anticipated that the objective of the nationwide lockdown would not be met if such a mass exodus was not stopped immediately,” Gahlot said.

Migrant workers, many of them daily wage earners have lost work across the country. Countless reports have emerged over the past few days of migrants taking to the road on foot to get back home, no matter where that may be. On Saturday, a man who was walking to his home in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena, died of a heart attack, possibly due to exhaustion, in Agra after walking around 200km from Delhi.

As images of thousands of workers crowding bus stations were beamed on television through Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday to discuss measures to clear the UP-Delhi border. Kejriwal told the PM that he had appealed to them to stay back, and promised to take care of their needs but that his calls hadn’t worked.

Accordingly, the Delhi government readied two shelters with a capacity to accommodate around 500 people by late Saturday night at Ghazipur and Patparganj in east Delhi.

But occupancy at the shelters remained abysmal, and most people left the shelter after eating lunch offered by the government.

Jasmeet Singh, deputy commissioner of police (east), who was at Anand Vihar, said people were also given the option of returning to where they came from in Delhi.

“We told them that buses will not be available from Sunday afternoon. The Delhi government also offered bus rides to those who wanted to return to the Capital. We are segregating passengers on the basis of distances they need to travel,” he said.

A senior police official said that anybody seen on foot with baggage, sacks, luggage was sent back.

“Cars and two-wheelers also were not allowed. Announcements were made in all districts to assure migrant workers that landlords would not force anybody to pay rent, and factory owners would pay them their full wages. We also kept relaying information that the coronavirus disease is susceptible to spreading through large groups,” the official said.

Strict calls, warning against violations of Section 188 of the Epidemic Act were issued to migrant workers found walking. They were told that action can be taken against them, the official added.