The migrants will also have to enter details on since when they are stuck in Delhi and the purpose of their visit, with the options being treatment, education, pilgrimage, tourist, migrant worker and others. (Express file photo by Prem Nath Pandey)
The launch of an online registration process, creation of a database of names on Aadhaar cards, talks with other state governments, and setting in motion a process to use a sprawling stadium for carrying out medical screening and issuance of passes. These are among the measures the Delhi government has initiated to send back stranded migrant workers, students, pilgrims and others under guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The North Delhi district administration Tuesday issued an order requisitioning “Chhatrasal Stadium, along with staff, immediately for screening, issuance of transit passes and completing other formalities” for migrant workers and others stranded in the capital.
In the page-long online registration form, details such as name, age, gender, Aadhaar number, mobile number, address in Delhi, date of birth, destination state, destination district, permanent address, details of medical conditions if any, number of family members travelling along need to be entered.
The migrants will also have to enter details on since when they are stuck in Delhi and the purpose of their visit, with the options being treatment, education, pilgrimage, tourist, migrant worker and others.
According to a senior government official, a list of around 5,000 migrants hailing from Rajasthan has been drawn up, with an average of 300-500 people from the state having been enlisted across all 11 districts. At Chhatrasal, screening will be carried out on migrants belonging to the North district.
An official of the West district said around 900 migrants have signed up to return.
An official said many workers are unlikely to qualify as the MHA has clarified that arrangements should only be for those among the stranded who had moved from their native places just before the lockdown period and could not return.
“The clarification is largely aimed to ensure that economic activities resume in big cities once the lockdown is gradually lifted. In many cases, migrant workers do not want to stay back anymore. For how long can a person live in a camp at the mercy of the state?” said an official.
As per guidelines framed by the Delhi government, the number of buses and trains required to send migrants back will be decided in consultation with nodal officers appointed by other states. Secretary of the social welfare department P K Gupta has been appointed state nodal officer for Delhi.
It says those who wish to travel by making their own arrangements will get transit passes from the DMs. “While leaving NCT of Delhi, such persons may be encouraged to use Aarogya Setu App through which their health status can be monitored and tracked,” it says.
Delhi has one of the largest concentration of migrant workers in the country. They are employed in construction sites, small manufacturing units, industries within the city as well as in Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and other NCR towns.