UP Police to keep check on migrants in isolation

The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to enlist the help of police personnel to shift stranded daily wage labourers headed to their home towns into newly created

The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to enlist the help of police personnel to shift stranded daily wage labourers headed to their home towns into newly created shelter homes and keep them there till their isolation period ends, in order to contain spread of Covid-19. The move comes after migrants who were told to stay in a Jewar shelter fled between Saturday night and Sunday morning. The worry in the state government is that people fleeing the National Capital Region (NCR) may be carrying the coronavirus, and end up infecting residents of their villages or towns.

The move comes after migrants who were told to stay in a Jewar shelter fled between Saturday night and Sunday morning. The worry in the state government is that people fleeing the National Capital Region (NCR) may be carrying the coronavirus, and end up infecting residents of their villages or towns. (Virendra Singh Gosain/HT PHOTO)

“We kept at least 100 migrant daily wage labourers at a shelter in Jewar on March 28 evening when they were walking towards their respective home towns in far-off districts,” said a district administration official.

“We provided them food, medicine and all other essential facilities. But in the morning, we found out that they all fled overnight. So we have now decided to use police force to keep such people in isolation till April 14, so that they do not cause the spread of Covid-19,” the official said.

The administration will deploy police personnel at the gates so that those in isolation do not flee before April 14.

The district administration has also converted India’s only Formula One track, the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, into a shelter home.

The administration is developing such shelter homes after the Uttar Pradesh government directed the administration stop the exodus immediately to curb any possibility of the disease being spread in communities.

Officials hope keeping migrants in isolation will help detect infections, and provide patients with treatment.

The administration has decided to turn 28 buildings into shelter homes to keep migrants in isolation.

However, officials said these shelter homes will take time to complete.

“We will take at least three days to make a shelter home at the Formula One campus. We are cleaning the toilets and rooms and developing the services required before the facility can be used as a shelter home,” said Navneet Goyal, officer on special duty, Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath also directed top officials to keep a track of all migrant labourers leaving Noida and Greater Noida for their homes.