IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh blames Maharashtra govt for chaos at inter-state border

This has led to a surge in the crowd of labourers and their family members coming in trucks, mini trucks, cars, taxis, auto-rickshaws, bikes etc and even walking and riding bicycles since lockdown restrictions were put in place from March 23.

A senior IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh on Friday blamed the Maharashtra government for a chaotic situation and crisis at the MP border, a charge refuted by Maharashtra government officials.

Bijasan on the MP-Maharashtra border in Barwani district, 313 kilometres south west of Bhopal, has seen a good number of labourers from Maharashtra heading to various parts of MP, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and Rajasthan amid the nationwide lockdown.(HT PHOTO.)

Bijasan on the MP-Maharashtra border in Barwani district, 313 kilometres south west of Bhopal, has seen a good number of labourers from Maharashtra heading to various parts of MP, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan etc being dropped at the border by Maharashtra government’s state transport buses since Monday, officials said.

This has led to a surge in the crowd of labourers and their family members coming in trucks, mini trucks, cars, taxis, auto-rickshaws, bikes etc and even walking and riding bicycles since lockdown restrictions were put in place from March 23, to cover hundreds of kilometres, according to officials.

While the MP government arranged to send MP labourers to their destinations in buses from the border for quite some time, it added 100 more buses to the fleet to drop other states’ labourers at the UP border since Tuesday albeit with change of buses twice en route. But the number of buses provided by the MP government so far has been hardly able to accommodate the labourers with their number swelling leading to frayed tempers on the border on Thursday and stone pelting by a section of labourers on government personnel. However, none were injured, officials said.

Responding to journalists’ questions on his visit to Bijasan on Friday, Commissioner of Indore division Akash Tripathi said, “It’s not our responsibility. Maharashtra should not do this. Also, they are dropping ‘wrong people at wrong places. People from eastern MP districts like Rewa, Satna etc are also being dropped here. Even eastern UP’s people are being dropped here on the western side. They should be dropped at a further point or they should be sent by trains. What is happening is wrong. But our chief minister has taken this stand on a humanitarian ground that since they are walking long distances we should use our buses to send them up to the UP border.”

He said, “We have now increased the number of buses from 100 to 200 given the crowd of other states’ people and made available buses in the morning to avoid any chaotic situation. We are making all out efforts to see to it that the migrant labourers from other states don’t have to walk in such scorching heat but we have our own limitations of resources. If they have to send labourers to borders they should limit the number.”

In reply to a question on social distancing norms thrown into disarray, the senior IAS officer said, “We are trying our best to see that they travel on seats in buses and are wearing masks but crowd management is a big issue here. In such a situation complete compliance of the norm is difficult. Besides, we see a huge crowd in trucks coming from Maharashtra and hardly any social distancing norms followed.”

As per officials, after lockdown 2.0, the number of such labourers has gone up from 20,000 to 25,000 per day from a few thousands in the beginning.

For the past about 12 days the district administration has allowed the other states’ labourers to enter the state without facing any hassles unlike earlier when the border was opened after intervals and it witnessed frequent confrontations between two sides.

Three cops were injured in a stone pelting incident on May 3. Till the bus service was started for other states’ labourers by MP government since Tuesday those walking or riding bicycles used to be accommodated in trucks and other vehicles at the insistence of police personnel but a large number of workers continued to walk after finding no space in trucks and other vehicles, said officials.

Nimad region in Madhya Pradesh comprising of Khandwa, Khargone, Burhanpur and Barwani districts witnesses higher temperatures than other parts of the state in summers. The nearest district in UP is Lalitpur district from Bijasan, about 600 kilometres away, while Jhansi which labourers mainly prefer to go to is about 650 kilometres away.

Nitin Kareer, additional chief secretary, revenue department, Maharashtra government who is in charge of the operation related to workers said, “We are not leaving anyone on the border. We are ready to send them by train and also sending some of them by buses, only in the cases where we get permission from the Madhya Pradesh government. Some cases may have happened, I’m not denying that but otherwise we are in touch and have not heard anything like this from them (Madhya Pradesh government).

(With inputs from HT Maharashtra bureau).