Desperate to go home, 9 Rajasthan migrants flee shelter home

Proshun Chakraborty | TNN | Apr 22, 2020, 04:18 IST

Nagpur: Desperate to return to their hometown, nine persons, including a woman and two kids, escaped from a shelter home on Koradi Road where a total 120 migrant workers have been lodged.
When asked about the escape by the inmates, a senior NMC official told TOI that none of them had symptoms of Covid-19 infection.
Koradi police too confirmed the incident.
These migrants comprising Shashi Chauhan, his wife Jeetu and their two kids had claimed to have started for Dhaulpur (Dholpur) in Rajasthan from Hyderabad on foot on March 27. On the way, they were detained by the city police and shifted to a shelter home at Tuli Public School, Bokhara, off Koradi Road.
“Two days ago, Chauhan, his wife, two kids and five youths (all 19s) climbed the school’s compound wall at night and escaped,” said a senior police official from Koradi police station. “We have already started investigation,” the official added.
The incident, however, raises questions over the security arrangements by Nagpur police. Apart from private security guard, two police personnel are deployed every night to ensure no inmate goes out without permission. Despite this, nine migrants managed to flee.
The city police are also facing flak from a section of society for ineffective imposition of lockdown.
As per NMC data, around 1,403 migrants are staying in city’s 22 shelter homes. “The NMC had to add another shelter home — Jawahar Vasatigruha in Civil Lines — to accommodate rising number of migrants detained by the city police,” said the civic official. Within two days, occupancy at city’s shelter homes rose by 33. Jawahar Vasatigruha can accommodate 100 occupants and at present 16 have been kept there, the official added.