Coronavirus update: Gravity of situation yet to dawn upon most Nizamuddin evacuees

Their faces covered, a group of men with their belongings on trolleys and in sacks, walked towards a green DTC bus parked outside the Nizamuddin police station.

They left their bags in the front and silently occupied one seat after the other. They hardly spoke to each other.

As they waited, another group did what they had done just minutes ago-- they evacuated from a five-storey white building, called Markaz, submitted to a thermal screening, gave their contact details and walked towards the bus.

“I had arrived from Muzaffarnagar 25 days ago to do social service. Now, I feel like as if I committed a crime,” said one of the men in the bus — the gravity of their collective act still not having dawned on him.

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He wanted water as the temperature rose in the bus, but none of his co-passengers had any.

The men were part of the around 1,000 pilgrims and guests hiding in the Markaz after the countrywide lockdown was announced on March 24 to prevent the spread of Covid-19. When officials tracked the travel history of at least eight persons who died in different parts of the country, it led them to this building. Since then, 24 people from the area were found positive for the virus and around 441 others showed symptoms. Nizamuddin had become a hot spot of the virus in the city.

On Tuesday, the roads leading to the Markaz were sealed and only government officials were allowed.

Sanitation workers roped in to spray disinfectants on the gates and windows in the Nizamuddin neighbourhoods received unusual requests -- from health officials and journalists to spray on their clothes and shoes, and the police requested them to spray on their cars and motorcycles.

In the adjoining lanes, civil defence volunteers walked around with a list of residents who were suspected of having come in contact with the Markaz residents.

But these volunteers said it was a futile task. “We are looking at people who may have visited the Markaz, but the occupants themselves had been to several places,” said Suraj Kumar, one of the volunteers.

People in the area concurred. Afzal Khan, a man who works at a roadside food stall and sleeps in a park near the Markaz, said, “Many of them would take a walk in the park and play with our children. They would then walk to the nearby Humayun’s Tomb.”

Other residents in the adjoining neighbourhoods said that the occupants would roam around in their streets. “Our delivery boys had been delivering food at the Markaz until Friday. They would approach the gates, collect the cash, hand over the food and leave,” said Zuhaib, owner of a Biryani restaurant nearby.

But the evacuees insisted that they weren’t to blame. “When the lockdown was announced, I visited multiple tour and transport shops in the neighbourhood for a way to get to my home in Lucknow. They all refused,” said another evacuee who didn’t wish to be identified.

He said that since the lockdown, he and the others in the Markaz wore masks and kept a “social distance”. “Our religion teaches us to follow the law of the land. Is it our fault that the lockdown was announced when we were here? Why weren’t we asked to leave much earlier when there is a police station right next door?” the man asked.

A statement from the Markaz on Tuesday said that when the ‘janta curfew’ was announced for March 22, the ongoing programmes were discontinued immediately, but the sudden halting of rail services during the lockdown left them stranded.

According to them, there were about 2,500 pilgrims in the Markaz and about 1,500 managed to leave the city immediately in the wake of the lockdown. Scores of those left behind included those from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar.

The Markaz statement said that the first formal notice to vacate the premises arrived on March 24.

Senior police officers refused to comment on why they did not ask the residents to leave as the Delhi government had also announced a “lockdown” from March 23. One officer on condition of anonymity said that they were cautious in dealing with a religious gathering. “We thought that any attempt to disperse them would be met with the resistance that we faced in Shaheen Bagh and Jamia,” said the officer.

Fuzail Ayyubi, the legal counsel of the Markaz in them matter, said that the visitors had arrived before any of the restrictions came into place.

“The pilgrims stay here for a few days and then depart. This is a round-the-year feature. After the country-wide lockdown was announced, we asked the authorities for help to send these people back, but no action was taken,” said Ayyubi, adding that the Markaz can accommodate 4,000-5,000 people on any given day.

Some of the evacuees HT spoke to said that they had arrived at the Markaz as late as on March 22, the day of the voluntary janta curfew.

Police and other officials involved in the evacuation said that the number of people stranded in the Markaz was heavily downplayed. “They hid the real figures from us. So far, we have already sent 34 buses, each occupied by 34 pilgrims. Many pilgrims are still being brought out,” said a police officer.

Parveen Kumar, a civil defence volunteer, said that when he had visited the Markaz on Friday with health officials, the response he received was that they didn’t need help from outside. “They weren’t willing to let us take the details of the occupants. They said they would manage on their own. When we spoke to the occupants, some of them complained of cough and fever. That is how some of them were found positive,” said Kumar.

At the adjoining Basti, which houses around 30,000 people, there were regular announcements from the mosques asking people not to panic.

“A teams of residents would stand guard on the streets to ensure people don’t step out. Now the area is almost sealed,” said Mohammad Umair, a social activist and resident.

Residents blamed the police for not acting on time despite being close to the Markaz.

SM Umar, the general secretary of Nizamuddin West RWA, said that they have issued circulars their WhatsApp groups, urging people to step out only when urgently required.

“The civic agencies spray disinfectants only on select days. We have divided ourselves in small groups to carry out the sanitisation work every day,” Umar said.