No migrant labourer should walk back to home in Uttar Pradesh on foot from big cities like Delhi, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed the state officials on Thursday amid coronavirus pandemic. The state government “has been actively engaged in bringing them (migrants) back safely”, a statement from Chief Minister’s office read.
The Chief Minister’s directions to state officials to make arrangements for migrant labourers and their families come as many of these labourers – young and old – and their children continue to cover journey of hundreds of kilometres on foot as the lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus continues.
“The Chief Minister has issued categorical directions to the officials to ensure that no migrant labour returns to the state while travelling on foot. He assured that the state government has been actively engaged in bringing them back safely,” a statement issued by the chief minister’s office said.
Last evening, after the chief minister’s orders, around 172 workers trying to walk home from Delhi and Noida were stopped by the UP Police on a highway in west UP’s Bulandshahr, about 514 km from state capital Lucknow.
In videos shot on mobile cameras, workers and their families were seen sitting on a road surrounded by policemen; they were later given food and moved to a college in the area. The local administration has promised to arrange buses for the workers today to send them home.
Hundreds of migrant workers trying to walk home to UP from neighbouring states – Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan – were stopped by the police in another town in west UP – Firozabad – on Thursday. They had already walked hundreds of kilometres before they were stopped.
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