Amid the continuing lockdown and COVID-19 threat, 217 Odia migrant workers from Surat in Gujarat reached Odisha’s Ganjam district at midnight on Wednesday.
Without waiting for government measures to evacuate them from Surat, they had opted to hire buses to reach their home district. Their long journey was permitted by the Surat district administration. Each of these poor migrant workers, without employment because of closure of textile units in Surat, had to pay ₹3,500 for the bus journey.
The district administration and the police were waiting for the arrival of these workers at Bhanjanagar. Their buses were taken to quarantine centres at Sheragarh and Dharakote under tight security. All of them underwent immediate thermal scanning. According to health department sources, as a precautionary measure swabs of some returnees with suspected symptoms have been collected for COVID-19 test.
As these migrant workers returned from Surat, where COVID-19 cases are prevalent, Ganjam district Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange has ordered strict following of quarantine norms at the centres. Strict action will be initiated against persons trying to visit these quarantine centres, the Collector said.
On Thursday some more buses with migrant Odia workers have started their journey for Ganjam district. Akhila Padhi, a migrant worker from Hinjli block of Ganjam, boarded a bus for his home district on Thursday afternoon. He was working as an operator in a textile firm in Surat. When contacted over phone, he said he had exhausted all his savings during the days of lockdown and did not had money to buy food. He could think of returning only when his family members sent him money to buy the bus ticket.
‘No medical check-up’
According to him, there was no medical check-up in Surat when they boarded the bus. The bus in which he is travelling back has over 50 passengers that increases the possibility of infection. “I felt it is better to remain in quarantine near home than suffer in cramped rooms in Surat without proper food,” he said.
