Coronavirus: Maharashtra Government moves 70,000 migrants to relief camps

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, March 30

The Maharashtra Government has moved more than 70,000 migrant labourers to 262 relief camps across the state where they will be provided with food, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said here on Monday.

”Maharashtra government has set up 262 relief camps across the state that is presently providing shelters to 70,399 migrant labour or the homeless people to ensure that they have food and a roof (above their heads), he tweeted.

According to officials here, the relief camps are located at municipal schools, open plots of land and private buildings which have been requisitioned for the purpose. With a large number of construction workers rendered jobless following the 21-day lockdown against coronavirus, the Maharashtra government has got builders to accommodate them in their under-construction properties. “We have allowed the buildings to be turned into transit camps for the migrant workers,” an official from the BMC said.

The Maharashtra Police are now rounding up migrant workers and homeless people roaming on the streets to be sent to more relief camps that would be opened in the coming days, according to officials.

It is not clear how many migrant workers and homeless people are present in Maharashtra. Officials estimate that their numbers would exceed five lakhs. According to Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta, district collectors have been asked to compile a list of migrant workers and homeless persons in their areas.

Thackeray, who is co-ordinating via tele-conferencing with the state’s six divisional commissioners and collectors of all districts, is overseeing supply of food grains from the central government’s Food Corporation of India to these relief camps, according to sources.