Desperate to reach home, migrants throng government hospitals for screening

Eager to return home in the ‘Shramik Express’ trains being run by the state government from Jalandhar, migrants threw social distancing guidelines to the wind and thronged the government hospitals for mandatory screening on Friday.

Authorities had a tough time managing the rush of migrants apart from regular patients.

No trains are running from Kapurthala and migrants are going to Jalandhar to board the train.

Workers are allowed to deposit their travel forms when found healthy, which makes them eligible to board the special trains.

Dr Sandeep Dhawan of the civil hospital said around 4,000 migrants had been screened and given a fitness certification.

“Most come after applying online while some come directly but we are screening all migrants,” said Dhawan.

“A large number of migrant workers queued up in hospitals in Phagwara. Around 250 migrants were examined till afternoon and hospital authorities had to deploy a staff member with a loudspeaker to appeal to the migrants to maintain distance,” said senior medical officer Kamal Kishor.

The state government is running free trains to Daltonganj in Jharkhand, Katni in Madhya Pradesh, Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, Gajipur and Banaras in UP, Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Ayodhya, Azamgarh, Darbhanga, Bahraich, Sultanpur, Mujaffar Nagar, Akbarpur, Sultanpur, Barkakhana, Azamgarh, Faizabad, Gorakhpur, Sitapur, Rai Bareli, Pratapgarh, Unnao, to Mau in Uttar Pradesh and Bettiah, Darbhanga, Katihar, Gaya and Chapra in Bhiar from Jalandhar.

So far, over 43,000 migrants were sent in 36 trains from Jalandhar railway station. The Jalandhar administration has set up a screening camp at the railway station besides transit camps for migrants.