Bihar: Migrants quarantined in their home districts

Debashish Karmakar | TNN | Updated: May 4, 2020, 10:58 IST

Migrant workers walk to their home towns in groups.

PATNA: The 1,174 migrant workers who reached the state from Rajasthan in a special train on Saturday have been quarantined in their respective blocks. They are being provided food and other necessary items by the district administration concerned.
Officials of the districts concerned are taking all possible measures to ensure that the migrant workers do not escape from the quarantine centres.
Dr Ragini Mishra, nodal officer for Covid-19 in the state, said the doctors would conduct health check-up of these migrant workers every day during their quarantine period. “There are chances that those asymptomatic now might develop symptoms later on. Hence, daily health check-up of these people is necessary,” she said.
Mishra said all returnee migrant workers are being kept in quarantine centres run by the disaster management and health departments. “Food and other necessary items are being provided to these workers,” she added.
She said there is enough space at 302 quarantine centres to accommodate thousands of migrant workers and students reaching the state from different parts of the country.
DGP Gupteshwar Pandey said police personnel have been deployed at borders to receive migrant workers and others reaching Bihar from different states.
“DMs and SPs have been asked to deploy smart officers to handle these people as they are already a frustrated lot following the lockdown and resultant hassles,” Pandey said.
ADG (headquarters) Jitendra Kumar said security has been tightened at state and district borders, quarantine centres and railway stations in view of arrival of migrant workers and students. “Magistrates and officers who will take them back to their respective districts in buses have been asked to follow protocols,” he added.