E-Paper
Govt looks at ways to help migrant labourers, to provide food and shelter
According to senior government officials familiar with the matter, provisions will either be made to provide safe transport to these daily-wage labourers, or government shelters will be set up for them.
With thousands of stranded migrant labourers walking back to their villages from big cities, the government is set to ease some of its 21- day lockdown rules in order to facilitate their return and ensure they get food and shelter.
According to senior government officials familiar with the matter, provisions will either be made to provide safe transport to these daily-wage labourers, or government shelters will be set up for them.
Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, a member of Parliament from Bihar, said that discussions were on at the highest level of government about how to help these men and women. “The government is alive to their situation. I also appeal to all civil society members to rise up and make provisions for such people,’’ Prasad told HT.
He added that he has spoken to Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, and several district magistrates in Bihar to make special arrangements for the labourers. A large section of the migrants are from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and have been walking from the national capital or metro cities in other states to their villages.
“I am happy that he (Adityanath) has promised to look into it, and that Uttar Pradesh will open up its night shelters so that they can be used by the migrants,’’ Prasad said, adding that district authorities in Bihar have assured him that workers who have means of public transport would at least get meals.
An official in the labour ministry said that some changes in some of the lockdown restrictions to help migrant workers were expected in the next couple of days. “There are states like UP and Bihar who are impacted much more by this problem than others. So any plan for the workers will have to keep in mind the local conditions,’’ said the official who asked not to be named. “We don’t want them (migrant labourers) to panic. We want them to know that we are working at a solution.’’
The Centre has been in touch with chief secretaries of several states to resolve the issue, and feedback has also been sought from the state transport departments. “Labour is a concurrent issue while transport is a state subject, so we are consulting all before we announce a solution,’’ said the labour ministry official quoted above.
