E-Paper
Bicycles left behind by migrant workers during Covid lockdown auctioned for ₹21 lakh
During the Covid pandemic-induced lockdown in early 2020, nearly 25,000 migrant workers reached Saharanpur on bicycles while heading back to their native places in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar from their places of work in Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
The Saharanpur district administration has auctioned 5,400 bicycles left behind by migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar while rushing home during the nationwide lockdown in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, a senior official aware of the development said on Saturday.
A total of ₹21.2 lakh collected through the auction of the bicycles on Friday has been deposited in the state exchequer, said Kinshuk Srivastava, sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), Sadar. “It is now the discretion of the state government how to utilise the money.”
During the pandemic-induced lockdown in early 2020, nearly 25,000 migrant workers reached Saharanpur on bicycles while heading back to their native places in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar from their places of work in Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
Saharanpur district is the gateway to Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
On reaching Saharanpur, they were stopped and quarantined in Radha Swami Satsang enclosures. The migrant workers were then sent to their native places in buses with the administration handing them tokens to collect their bicycles later, said an official familiar with the development, requesting anonymity.
The bicycles, which were parked in the open, got rusted in the past two years. While 14,600 labourers later returned Saharanpur and collected their bicycles, the remaining 5,400 bicycles turned into scrap. “After waiting for two years, the administration decided to auction the bicycles,” the SDM said.
