COVID-19 lockdown: Bihar intensifies outreach programme for stranded migrants in other states

Patna, Apr 16 () The Bihar government has reached out to at least 14.5 lakh migrants stranded in Delhi, Mumbai and other parts of the country, amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown, and provided them meals, dry ration and otheressential items, officials here said.

The state government has also been doling out a special assistance of Rs 1,000 to distressed migrant workers after verification through the Direct Benefit Transfer system.

Two days after a large number of labourers, many of them from the state, had gathered at the Bandra station in Mumbai, heeding rumours that arrangements were being made to send them home, the Bihar government took up the matter with Maharashtra, while also making efforts to establish contact with the anguished workers, Bihar Minister Sanjay Jha told on Thursday.

"The Bihar chief secretary spoke to his Maharashtra counterpart on the same day and sought help for the stranded migrants there," he said.

Principal Secretary, Bihar State Disaster Management Department, Pratyaya Amrit, said a total of 14.56 lakh migrants have been provided relief so far in camps set up for the purpose in Delhi and Mumbai, and states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal.

The state government is supplementing the efforts of the local administration at these places, Amrit said.

Applications for special assistance have poured in from at least eight states, including Haryana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, and Delhi.

As part of the special assistance programme, launched by the government on April 6, about Rs 8 lakh has been debiteddirectly in the bank accounts of the beneficiaries, he said.

"In accordance with the instructions of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, we are trying to reach out to every single person who is contacting us over helpline numbers atthe CM's office, the disaster management department or the Bihar Resident Commissioner office in Delhi," Amrit said.

Heart-wrenching images of jobless labourers and marginal workers walking back home, after suspension of transport services, were splashed on all TV channels andsocial media platforms, following the imposition of the nationwide lockdown in March end.

Some of them were groundedmidway by the administration in other states.

The chief minister had appealed to them to stay put wherever they were and promised that his government wouldprovide necessary assistance to them.

The April 14 incident in Mumbai further laid bare the woes of the migrants, many of whom have lost daily wage jobs.

Amrit, whose department is coordinating relief operations, said 14 camps are functioning in Mumbai itself.

He also said that the government-funded relief operations in far-off places, including Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Sikkim, are being carried out withthe help of the Bihar Foundation's chapters and their affiliated organisations.

The Bihar Foundation -- a forum for the state's diaspora -- has Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who also head the JD(U), as its patron and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi as its chairman.

Jha, a close associate of Kumar, said the government has taken stock of the situation in the relief camps of Mumbaiand elsewhere, after Tuesday's unfortunate incident in Mumbai.

At several places the workers are not receiving help from local authorities, he stated.

"We, at the party level, along with officials and their personal contacts, are trying to redress their problems," the state water resources minister said.

In a scathing attack on opposition RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav for trying to "gain political mileage out of the Mumbaiepisode" Jha, who is also JD(U) general secretary and the party in-charge of Delhi, said, "It does not behove a personto make a political statement, when everybody else was risingabove politics to fight the danger posed by the deadly virus."

Tejashwi had criticised the Nitish Kumar governmentover the poor plight of stranded migrants following the April14 incident.

The state minister took a swipe at RJD heir apparent,saying "Why is he not with the people of Bihar in this time ofneed instead of registering his presence through tweets fromDelhi?"

In the national capital, around 20,000 people areprovided lunch and dinner, maintaining social distancingnorms, in ten camps set up in migrant-dominated localities ofBadarpur, Lakshmi Nagar and Palam among other places.

Apart from the state government and the BiharFoundation, many organisations in Mumbai, have come forward tohelp the migrants left in the lurch due to the COVID-19outbreak.

Pratibha Nalin Gramin Mahila Vikas Charitable Trust inMumbai has distributed dry ration including rice, pulse salt,sugar, cooking oil, assorted spices, besides potato and onion,to the poor in several parts of Mumbai.

Nalin Pandey, who heads the trust, said thebeneficiaries were mostly from Bihar, Andhra Pradesh,Maharashtra, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

"A needy is a needy... Our volunteers do notdiscriminate among people on the basis of caste, religion orregion during crisis," Pandey added. SNSRMS04161842 ANBANB