E-Paper
Thousands of migrants made to wait in Madhya Pradesh as UP shuts border
Thousands of labourers have gathered at Johariya village in Datia district on MP-UP border as Uttar Pradesh closed its borders to disallow movement of people.
Thousands of workers on their way home were stranded in Madhya Pradesh districts bordering Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, as UP sealed its borders to prevent further movement of stranded workers, throwing into disarray the social distancing norms, according to government officials.
As per police officials about 8,000 labourers, including women and children, gathered at Bijasan village in Barwani district and more than 5,000 at Pitol in Jhabua district since Saturday as they were not allowed to enter Madhya Pradesh. Similarly, thousands of labourers have gathered at Johariya village in Datia district on MP-UP border as Uttar Pradesh closed its borders to disallow movement of people.
Barwani on the MP-Maharastra border is 313 kilometres south west of Bhopal in Nimad region, while Jhabua on MP-Gujarat border is 341 kilometres south west of Bhopal in Malwa region. Datia on MP-UP border is situated 405 kilometres north of Bhopal.
Earlier, Barwani administration sent such labourers in about 200 buses to Uttar Pradesh on Thursday and Friday but they were stuck in Datia as UP had closed its border. This is why the administration in Datia didn’t allow further movement of people since then, said an official.
Notably, on Sunday agitated labourers in Barwani pelted stones on police personnel at Bijasan village near Sendhwa on not being allowed to enter Madhya Pradesh resulting in injuries to a police sub-inspector and two constables.
Though at Bijasan the district the administration made arrangements for food for labourers, the increase in the count of labourers with each passing moment has thrown all the arrangements into disarray, said an official.
“We had not anticipated that Uttar Pradesh would close its borders. Even otherwise, it’s not possible to provide basic facilities of stay and food to such a large number of people, that too while ensuring social distancing among them,” said the official.
Activist Medha Patkar criticised the governments, both Central and the state, for not taking care of labourers.
“People are coming through various modes, some even bare foot, but none is taking care of them, whether it’s the central government or the state governments of UP, MP, Maharashtra and Gujarat,” said Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar.
Vishwadeep Singh Parihar, town inspector of police at Sendhwa, said, “There are certain women in the crowd who are pregnant. There are several couples with kids. Hence, the administration has decided to arrange transport for such people to send them to UP border so that they don’t have any problem in staying here and could reach their home early whenever UP border is opened for them.”
A stranded migrant complained of lack of food and water for them and rued the arbitrary nature of decision making.
“Our group reached here on Sunday morning and we want to go to Uttar Pradesh. The officials here say Yogi ji doesn’t want us to get into Uttar Pradesh. The authorities are making decisions on their own about the opening and closing of the border. There has been no food and water for us since yesterday. There should be at least prior information when they are going to close or open the border,” said Rohit, stranded at Gujarat border, from Faridpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Arvind Kumar from Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh alleged that people who belong to Madhya Pradesh are being allowed to enter.
Collector of Datia district Rohit Singh said, “A number of labourers were allowed to get in, but then again the border was closed from the UP side.”
Director general of police, Madhya Pradesh Vivek Johri said, “We have no problem in allowing people to enter Madhya Pradesh but the states which are allowing people to leave and Uttar Pradesh which has to allow them to enter the state have to take a decision on the issue.”
