Mumbai police distributes travel registration forms to migrant workers

The forms are being distributed in person at food distribution points, community kitchens, relief camps and shelters, said Mumbai police officials.

Mumbai police has started manual distribution of registration forms to migrant workers, stranded in the city due to lockdown, to enable them to travel back to their homes.

A police officer walks out of a disinfectant van after dispersing a large crowd of migrants after they gathered outside a railway station, during an extended nationwide lockdown to slow the spreading of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), in Mumbai. (REUTERS)

The forms are being distributed in person at food distribution points, community kitchens, relief camps and shelters, said Mumbai police officials.

The forms are being distributed after the Indian Railways announced special Shramik trains for migrant workers, and the relaxation given by the Ministry of Home Affairs for inter-state road transport for migrant workers, pilgrims and students during the lockdown.

Mumbai police officials said that most migrant workers come from poor backgrounds and do not have access to the internet which limits their scope for applying online, following which the top brass of the city decided to hand over the forms to the migrants themselves.

A senior police officer said that the police already know where most of the migrants are living. After the Bandra incident (wherein over 1,000 migrants had turned up near Bandra railway station on April 14) cops had located those pockets in the city where most of the stranded migrants, laborers are living in clusters to provide them food and other essential items.

Bandra, Wadala TT, areas along with the docks like Sewri, Mazgaon, Reay Road, Cotton Green, Govandi, Mankhurd, Chembur, in North Borivali and Kandivali are the pockets where most of the stranded migrant labourers are residing.

“To reach out to maximum stranded migrant workers, pilgrims, students our men at the police station level are distributing forms manually. Many migrants are given forms at the food distribution points, community kitchens and at the migrants relief camps and shelters,” said Vinoy Kumar Choubey, additional director general (Law & Order), Mumbai police.

Public announcements are being made in the slums to discourage migrant workers from rushing to police stations or railway stations with the forms. Only one member of a group would be allowed to visit police stations with the required documents.

“The stranded migrants are given forms with the instructions that they must avoid to apply for a single person’s travel and instead form groups of 25 to 40, and apply together in groups. They are also being informed about the strict compliance of conditions such as health clearance certificate from a registered doctor, Aadhar card details, etc.,” Choubey said.

“Separate teams under zonal DCPs, who are the nodal officers for this task, would segregate the collected forms and then in coordination with the Railways and state road transport department transport will be arranged”, added Choubey.

“Once we get forms of around 1,000 stranded migrants wishing to go to the same destination we would approach railways to arrange a train for the said destination”, he said.

Migrants stranded in containment areas are not included in this set up, irrespective of their health conditions.