Hours after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to extend the lockdown till May 3, the Uttar Pradesh government cleared the air on sending back home over 1.25 lakh migrants lodged in over 5,000 shelter homes across the state.
“The migrants who have completed 14 days of quarantine will be permitted to leave for home after their health check-up. Those who have not finished the quarantine time will have to wait. The migrants from other states will stay wherever they are till the lockdown is in force. The health department will screen all of them and the revenue department will give them food packets similar to what flood victims are given,” said Awanish Awasthi, additional chief secretary, Home.
Chief minister Yogi Adiyanath, while announcing his government’s intention of exploring partial relaxation in lockdown in some sectors on Sunday had said that the migrants who have completed the stipulated quarantine period would be sent home with an advisory for another 14-day quarantine at their homes.
On Monday, he said that the health teams in host districts would first do their health checkup and the district administration will make lists of people (with their names and proper addresses) before sending them off to their home districts. Back home, the district’s administration will keep surveillance on them for another 14 days.
{{/usCountry}}On Monday, he said that the health teams in host districts would first do their health checkup and the district administration will make lists of people (with their names and proper addresses) before sending them off to their home districts. Back home, the district’s administration will keep surveillance on them for another 14 days.
{{/usCountry}}A state government said: “We will play a good host to migrants. We will drop them home. They cannot go home on their own because public transport continues to be off-roads.”
After the lockdown on March 24 when all public transport system had come to a grinding halt, a large number of UP migrants in other states had started making mass movement.
They reached bordering districts--with the majority at Noida, Ghaziabad and Delhi.
Migrants walking home long-distance turned a phenomenon and public outrage. The state government then decided to press in 1,000 buses, brought in 2.7 lakh migrants from outside UP and also transported nearly 1.7 lakh, inter-districts migrants. By the time the Central government ordered to seal the borders, most of these transported migrants had reached their homes. And remaining 1.3 lakh were lodged in 5,200 shelter homes across the state.
However, the migrants who are in UP, but belong to the other states, will continue to stay at the shelter homes and same is the case with the UP migrants who are stranded in other states.
The state government, last month had appointed nodal officers for different states who will coordinate with those states where UP migrants are stranded and organise for their well being in the shelter homes in those states.
A UP State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) officer said we had not started preparing for the migrants ride home but will announce as soon as we get a green signal to operate.
Another officer said the decision had been taken about sending the migrants home but the procedures that had to be followed will take some time.
Lucknow Division Commissioner, Mukesh Meshram said: “We will start processing their departure formalities as they complete their 14 days quarantine cycle. Because, on reaching home, they have to be in home quarantine, we have worked out food packets for them. Each food packet will have 10 kg wheat flour, 10 kg rice, 5 kg pulses, 5 kg potato, oil, 250 gram each of chilli, turmeric, salt, and sugar. This is enough for a family for fourteen days, but in case they exhaust it before 14 days, then the respective district administration will make one more supply to them.”
The district administration and panchayat will keep an eye on the heath and quarantine of the migrants for 14 days.