Panic triggered by fake news led to migrants’ exodus: Govt

NEW DELHI: The exodus of a large number of migrant workers was triggered by panic created by fake news regarding duration of the Covid-19 lockdown and their worry over adequate supply of basic facilities like food, water, shelter and healthcare, the junior home minister Nityanand Rai said in a written reply to Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
In reply to a query regarding measures taken to protect migrant workers, Rai said the central government, from March 21 onwards, expanded the ‘control room’ operations in the home ministry and made it functional 24x7 under the supervision of senior officers. “These control rooms attended to the grievances of stranded persons including migrant workers and promptly resolved these grievances relating to food, transport, shelter, etc. States and Union territories were also advised to set up control rooms,” he said.
He said the Centre had ensured that during lockdown, no citizen was deprived of food, drinking water, medical facilities etc. The government allowed states to use the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) on 28th March itself and released an advance Rs.11, 092 crore from the SDRF to the states on 3rd April, he said.
The government’s assertion that it has no data on deaths of migrants while they were on the move or the extent of joblessness triggered by the lockdown led to a sharp attack by opposition parties.
“Did the deaths not take place if you did not count? But yes, it is sad the government was unaffected by it. The world saw their deaths, only the Modi government was not aware of it,” Congress’ Rahul Gandhi said on Twitter.
Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee accused the government for the being “inhuman”.