Coronavirus update: 64K migrant workers housed in relief camps in Pune

The district administration has set up 114 residential camps, while the sugarcane cooperatives have set up 571 camps.

Pune Divisional Commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar, on Sunday, said that the district administration has made arrangements for 64,032 migrant labourers in a total of 685 relief camps in the district.

Migrant labourers stay in a shelter provided by PMC at Gogate Mahanagar Palika Schoo at Narayan Peth in Pune, India, on Monday, March 30, 2020. (Pratham Gokhale/HT Photo)

The district administration has set up 114 residential camps, while the sugarcane cooperatives have set up 571 camps.

Mhaisekar also claimed that a total of 1.18 lakh workers have been provided meals.

The commissioner further said that instructions have been issued to all district collectors and municipal commissioners to start the distribution of an essentials kit designated for daily wage workers and migrants.

“The kit has 10 items wherein social organizations , NGOs and philanthropists have donated for the cause,” he said.

The 21-day nation-wide lockdown has hit the sugar industry adversely in Maharashtra with an inordinate delay in the harvesting of almost 10 lakh metric tonnes of sugarcane. due to a lack of labour.

This has jeopardised the production of more than one lakh metric tonnes of sugar.