Migrant movement: A long way to go before they can isolate

Around 11.30am on Sunday, a group of eight men, with bags on their shoulders and faces covered with scarves, assembled at Majri Chowk in Panchkula. Hailing from Uttar Pradesh, most of them had come to the city in search of work. Now with the city in lockdown, all of them are out of work and have no money to pay their rent or even afford two square meals a day.

“We had been working at the motor market in Manimajra for the last seven to eight years. But now with the market closed, we have no work or wages,” said Nawab, one of the migrants. He added that their employer did not provide them any financial assistance and only gave them the previous month’s salary. “We have no hope of survival and want to go back to our families now,” he added.

With transport services suspended, the group hitchhiked till Majri Chowk in a tempo and planning to walk back home, about 200 to 300 kilometres.

Some volunteers from old Panchkula provided them food but apart from that they got no other help.

Near Chandimandir toll plaza, another group of nine men were found marching on. They say they hail from different parts of UP. Surender Kumar, a native of Farrukhabad, Mahesh of Bariely said they worked at different plastic and packaging factories in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh. Santosh, another worker at a sweet shop in Mohali, said, “I have only Rs 400 left in my pocket and my employer returned to Patiala after closing the shop. I am going to my house in Ambala as I have nothing left here to survive.”

‘WHAT WILL WE DO HERE, OUR EMPLOYER HAS LEFT TOO’

A few metres away on the Panchkula-Yamunanagar highway, another group of 10 men were found moving towards Ramgarh. While a few of them worked at a sweets shop, the others say they worked at a plastic bottle factory. “What will we do here when our employer himself has returned to his native village in Rajasthan. He did not give us any advance to deal with the emergency. We were simply told to move back to our villages. With no other support, I have no option but to go back home in Agra,” said Viresh Kumar.

PANCHKULA SETS UP TEMPORARY SHELTERS

The Panchkula administration woke up from its slumber only post noon. Deputy commissioner (DC) Mukesh Kumar Ahuja said they have taken up the matter and the migrants have been stopped. “No movement is allowed amid the lockdown and thus the matter was taken up with the police department asking them to contain these people in buses or other vehicles, back to the shelter sites being set up by the administration where essential services would be provided to them,” he said.

Ahuja said 12 temporary shelter sites are being set up in various government schools in Sector 17, 19, 20, Mansa Devi Complex, Saketri, Ramgarh, Barwala and Raipur Rani and directions have been given to officials concerned for providing necessary services.