As migrants leave city, Noida shuts one of five community kitchens

With a drastic fall in the number of migrant workers, including construction labourers, daily wage earners and their dependents, the district administration has

With a drastic fall in the number of migrant workers, including construction labourers, daily wage earners and their dependents, the district administration has shut down one of its five community kitchens set up at a Shani temple at the Delhi-Noida border.

HT Image

During the peak of the lockdown period, the Noida authority had served food to 1.3 lakh migrant workers daily. However, presently, only less than 40% of the dependents need free food from kitchens, said officials.

“We have decided to shut down a community kitchen at the Shani temple because most of the migrants who were depended on this facility are not turning up for free food. Earlier, we were cooking food for at least 600 people at this facility. But now, most of them may have either gone back to their respective home towns or have gone back to their work,” said Avinash Tripathi, officer on special duty of the Noida authority.

The authority officials said that less than 40% the people now need food across the city in different areas.

The Noida authority is running four community kitchens in the district in areas such as Harola, Sector 5, Bhangel, Sorkha and Mamura. When the government announced the nationwide lockdown with the aim of preventing the spread of Covid-19 infection, the Noida authority had started these kitchens to distribute fresh food for the migrants, who were left jobless.

But the Uttar Pradesh government on May 18 decided to resume operations at factories, construction sites and other businesses. The government also started providing transport facilities to the migrants so that they can go back to their respective home towns. The Gautam Budh Nagar district administration and other agencies have sent back more than 80,000 migrants already.

“We believe that most of them have back gone to their home towns and others have returned to their respective jobs,” said Tripathi.

The authority officials said that migrants are leaving the city daily and their numbers are decreasing very fast. If all these migrants leave, we will shut down all the kitchens. As per data available, till May 24, the authority has distributed 1,07,376 food packets to migrant workers. An additional 50 lakh food packets were distributed by self help groups, developers, private firms, corporate houses and individuals.