Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba on Thursday asked state governments to ensure adequate arrangements are put in place to ensure safety, shelter and food security for migrant workers, thousands of whom have been stranded en route to their home towns and villages in an exodus from the cities after the enforcement of the coronavirus disease lockdown on March 25.
Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh announced additional direct cash benefits amid reports of distress among the workers, who came out onto the streets in Mumbai and the states of Odisha, Gujarat, Punjab and West Bengal this week, demanding that they be allowed to return home. The lockdown was extended until May 3 on April 14.
Gauba, the country’s top civil servant, asked all state chief secretaries on Thursday to ensure adequate arrangements are made for the migrants, mainly daily-wage labourers left without work after the lockdown came into force last month. He asked states to appoint district collectors as nodal officers responsible for coordinating arrangements for the migrant workers.
“Each camp (for migrants) should be put [under the] charge of a senior officer,” Gauba said in a directive to state governments.
The Supreme Court last week ordered that adequate medical facilities and proper arrangements for food, clean drinking water and sanitation be ensured for migrant workers at relief camps across the country. Following this directive, the home ministry asked all states to implement welfare measures for migrant workers.
{{/usCountry}}The Supreme Court last week ordered that adequate medical facilities and proper arrangements for food, clean drinking water and sanitation be ensured for migrant workers at relief camps across the country. Following this directive, the home ministry asked all states to implement welfare measures for migrant workers.
{{/usCountry}}In Bhopal, an official of the government’s public relations department said the state government had deposited Rs 1,000 each in the bank accounts of these workers and distributed essential items to them.Last week, the government said it would give Rs 1,000 each to about 7,000 migrants from 22 states who are stranded in MP..
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has appointed seven Indian Administrative Service officers to ensure help to migrants from Madhya Pradesh who are stranded in other states, an official statement said. The CM asked MPs and MLAs to prepare a list of stranded workers from their areas and submit the lists to the government, the statement said.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday said migrant workers who stay back in relief camps until the lockdown period would be given financial assistance of Rs 2,000 each when they leave after completing their quarantine.
The amount would be useful to the migrant workers to reach home after the quarantine. “This will encourage the migrant workers to stay put in the quarantine camps till the lockdown is lifted,” an official familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity .
In several parts of the state, people who have been put in the quarantine camps have been leaving to try and reach their towns and villages, frustrated by the extension of lockdown.
Government officials informed the CM that an amount of Rs 850 had been spent on each person put up at quarantine centres, including Rs 500on food, a bed and blanket, Rs 50 on sanitation and Rs 300 on transport.
The measures were announced as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday warned of social unrest unless the government acts quickly to provide relief to migrant workers.
“It is important to have a strategy to deal with this crisis. The government needs to act on it quickly otherwise there will be social unrest in the country. You have to respond quickly and be compassionate while addressing the issue. I have told Congress chief ministers that they need to handle this situation with extreme care and gentleness,” Gandhi told a press conference in New Delhi.
A senior government official, who didn’t wish to be named, said once some manufacturing plans restart and other business activities resume after April 20, some migrant labourers who were heading home may stay back and join work.
The federal home ministry said it was monitoring on a daily basis violation of lockdown measures including congregations of people and opening of shops and commercial establishments. State police forces have been asked to take action against the violators under the Disaster Management Act, MHA officials said.Incidents of violence against health workers engaged in surveillance and enforcement of quarantine measures are also being ascertained.