Police to make list of migrant labourers, pilgrims, students stranded in the city

All stations under the Mumbai Police on Thursday started the exercise of updating the list of migrant labourers, pilgrims, pilgrims, tourists, students and other

All stations under the Mumbai Police on Thursday started the exercise of updating the list of migrant labourers, pilgrims, pilgrims, tourists, students and other stranded people under their jurisdiction, excluding those who have tested positive for Covid 19, to send them back to their hometowns.

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However, police sources said, apart from creating a list there is no clarity on which mode of transport will be used. Police are also asking the stranded people if they have personal means of transport that can be used. Pranaya Ashok, DCP (operations) and Mumbai Police spokesperson did not respond to calls and messages.

As testing is not possible, a mandatory screening will be done for all migrant labourers. They will also be asked to produce a certificate from a registered medical practitioner, stating they are not showing any symptom of the novel coronavirus disease. The procedure will take at least three to four days to complete, said police sources.

Police have released an application form for migrants to fill in their name, Aadhaar details, mobile number, address and medical certificate.

The list is being prepared under the guidance of 13 zonal deputy police commissioners (DCPs) in Mumbai Police. Each zonal DCP will forward the records to a nodal officer appointed by the collector’s office. The officer will verify them and send the reports back to the local DCP’s office.

A police officer, posted in Malad (East) area, said, “We have been asked to get in touch with migrant labourers and make a list of them. We know about 850 migrant labourers live under our jurisdiction and are further updating our list. We are also verifying who is a migrant labourer and who is not.”

Once the list with their details--name, age, village, state, mobile number, photo identity card and the medical certificate -- is collected, a police officer will conduct a verification process and update the zonal DCP with a list of such labourers.

To ensure social distancing during the exercise, a senior police officer from the central region, which is worst hit by the virus, said they are taking details of only 25 labourers per day.

“We have migrants in jurisdictions of every police station. A majority of them are settled in Nagpada, Wadala, Dharavi, Byculla, Sewri and Reay Road. Every police station has been assigned a job of gathering details of 25 migrants daily. The list will be submitted to the DCP of the zone. This will not result in any chaos,” he said.

Crime branch asked to supplement force

After police personnel above 55 years of age were sent on leave along with officials suffering major ailments, the Mumbai Police commissioner on Thursday directed 15 units of the crime branch, including anti-extortion cell (AEC), criminal intelligence unit (CIU) and property cell to assist the local police stations in handing critical containment zones in their respective zones.

Joint commissioner of police Santosh Rastogi confirmed that around 150 officials from the crime branch have been deployed for Covid 19 bandobast. “The crime branch officials were deployed for bandobast which require extra force,” said Rastogi.

“The crime branch is an investigation agency and is ordinarily not deployed on such duties, but due to shortage of staff in the police stations, around 150 crime branch officials from all units were deployed in most affected areas under their zone,” said a senior official on condition of anonymity.

(Inputs from Manish K Pathak, Suraj Ojha and Faisal Tandel)