State Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray states the Union Government failed to take a call on arranging a way back home for migrant labourers
MUMBAI| On Tuesday PM Modi extended the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the COVID-19. Amid the lockdown crowd of the migrate worker’s gather outside the Bandra station to return to their hometown. Laboourer’s protested outside the Bandra station about 3,000 workers called sit-in protest and demands going back.
This incident fueled a political blame game. Soon reactions started pouring up from Maharashtra leaders. ShivSena blamed Centre for failing to decide how migrant labourers could be safely sent back to their home state. On another hand state, BJP claims the Maha Vikas Agahdi failed in its responsibility.
The newly elected environment minister Aditya Thackeray through tweeter said, “The current situation at Bandra Station, now dispersed, or even the rioting in Surat is a result of the Union government not being able to take a call on arranging a way back home for migrant labourers. They don’t want food or shelter, they want to go back home”.
The current situation at Bandra Station, now dispersed or even the rioting in Surat is a result of the Union Govt not being able to take a call on arranging a way back home for migrant labour. They don’t want food or shelter, they want to go back home
— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) April 14, 2020
A bit different but still similar incident took place week before in Surat where large workers from Orissa created ruckus and set handcarts on fire in Laskana area of the district demanding to get back home.
Aditya Thackeray further added, “Right from the day when trains were first shut down, Maharashtra has been requesting for another 24-hour run so that migrant workers can go back to their home state. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray ji had even raised this issue in the PM-CM video-conference, requesting a roadmap for transporting migrant workers. A mutual roadmap set by the Centre will largely help transport them from one state to another safely and efficiently”.
A mutual road map set by Union Govt will largely help migrant labour to reach home from one state to another safely and efficiently. Time and again this issue has been raised with the centre.
— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) April 14, 2020
What is more unfortunate is that, in such situation too, State Govt is shrugging off the responsibility from own shoulders and blaming the Central Government.
At least now understand that this war against #CoronaVirus is not a political war!#bandrastation— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) April 14, 2020
Former Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam said, “They (workers) were not getting food to eat, while their way back home was blocked. For how long could they have been suppressed? Much of the government’s relief plan has remained on paper.”
The statistic of the state shows it has 3.32 lakhs workers from the 25 states, including Maharashtra and neighbouring Nepal, stuck in 2,691 camps set up by the state government. A total of 1,51,887 or 46% are from outside Maharashtra. In the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) alone, there were as many as 1,09,307 workers stranded across 933 locations, with the island city alone reporting 44,702 workers at 351 locations and the suburbs accounting for another 20,205. The latest record states, the highest number of stranded workers were from Bihar at 30,320, followed by West Bengal (23,679) and Uttar Pradesh (23,136), Madhya Pradesh (16,903), Jharkhand (16,182) and Chattisgarh (8,817).
Shweta Damle of Habitat and Livelihood Welfare Association claims the migrants were desperate to get back to their hometown. Shweta said, “If this did not occur earlier during the lockdown, it is entirely due to the efforts of the civil society groups that have stepped in and provided food and groceries for migrant workers stranded here. Not only do large numbers of migrant workers not have ration cards, but many had also run out of money to afford the subsidised grain”.
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