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‘No DTC or UP buses to take you home’: Kejriwal asks Delhi migrants to stay put
Migrants rush in Bandra triggered fears of a re-run of the Anand Vihar fiasco
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday moved to pre-empt a repeat of migrant workers’ exodus from the national capital, seen last month at the beginning of the first phase of three-week-long national lockdown, by issuing a clarification in advance that it was impossible for anyone to take them home right now and that they should stay put in the national capital until May 3, when the second phase of the national lockdown-- announced today-- comes to an end.
Kejriwal was forced to issue the clarification after a similar crisis erupted in Mumbai, where migrant labourers, said to be mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, gathered at a bus stop near the Bandra railway station demanding the resumption of transport services enabling their return home. They had to be lathicharged first followed by assurances that they will be provided food and taken care of in the migrant camps in the state till the duration of the lockdown.
The scene was an instant reminder of the crisis that unfolded on Delhi streets and its borders with Uttar Pradesh last month when hundreds of thousands of migrant labourers gathered at the interstate bus stations near UP border in the false hope that they will be provided transport home. The incident had led to a political war of words between the UP and the Delhi government with the former alleging that the Delhi government conspired to drop the migrants at Anand Bihar Bus Terminal using Delhi Transport Corporation buses in violation of the lockdown norms. The incident also led to action against senior bureaucrats in the Delhi government. Kejriwal, on this instance, made it clear that the migrants should not believe even if told that there were DTC buses ready to ferry them to some other place.
“People may try to spread rumours. Someone will say they can take you to your home if you pay them so much. No one can take you to your home or village right now. Someone might tell you DTC buses are standing somewhere. No DTC bus is taking you anywhere..,” Kejriwal said.
He asked migrants from other states to show little bit more patience so that the gains made in the first phase of lockdown are not lost by showing impatience.
“Several of you have come to Delhi from other states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar or Haryana. Some of you are desperate to return to your home. I pray to you with folded hands to wait till May 3. Control your anxiety and desperation now, because chaos at this stage will create huge problems,” Kejriwal said.
The Delhi chief minister added that his government had made more than sufficient arrangements for food in the national capital and no one needed to worry on that count.
“We are arranging for medicine and food. If you want anything we will have it delivered at your home,” Kejriwal added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, told people this morning that the country needed to extend the lockdown by another couple of weeks if India was to not go the way of the European nations overwhelmed by the pandemic, and the resultant loss of thousands of lives.
