Amid the chaos, fear and uncertainty spreading across the country because of the COVID-19 outbreak, a distressing narrative has emerged from Delhi, where thousands of migrant workers, left without jobs, shelter or money after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 21-day nationwide lockdown shut down almost all commercial establishments, are still trying desperately to return to hometowns and villages across the border in Uttar Pradesh.
The centre’s “total lockdown”, meant to halt the spread of a highly infectious novel coronavirus that transmits rapidly in crowded spaces, had suspended all interstate bus and railway services, leaving migrants and their young families no option but to walk hundreds of kilometres foot in searing heat.
As harrowing stories of men, women and infants undertaking the punishing trek emerged over the past few days, the Uttar Pradesh and Delhi governments responded today by arranging buses to ferry the people home; this morning the UP government said it had organised 1,000 buses and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said 200 DTC buses would also be pressed into service.
This evening, as the fourth day of the lockdown comes to a close, the sheer scale of the exodus was highlighted in videos shared by news agency ANI and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi,
https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1243893756883066881?s=20 Delhi Police officers, also wearing masks, can be seen carrying lathis and loudspeakers as they attempt to organise the mass of people. One officer, careful to keep a safe distance between himself and the crowd, waves at a man with a lathi as he tries to control the queue.
In it tens of thousands of migrants can be seen crowding around a handful of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses. As the video pans to show either side of a pedestrian bridge linking to a nearby metro station, the crowd stretches as far as the eye can see.
A solitary Delhi Police patrol car can be seen on one side of the bridge with around a dozen police officers gathered around. A cacophony of car horns and sirens can be heard in the background as a never-ending line of masked men carrying bags and suitcases shuffle past.
here are more than 900 active COVID-19 cases in the country and, as per data from the Health Ministry, at least 19 deaths have been linked to the virus.
Worldwide over five lakh people have been infected and more than 23,000 killed by a viral attack that has long since passed the death toll of the dreaded SARS outbreak that killed 774 people.
