Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Jayaswal said the failure of employer States, especially in western India, to keep migrant labour in good conditions may lead to a “fourth lockdown” till at least the festival of “Chhatth” (celebrated in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh in October-November).
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Dr. Jayaswal, who has volunteered for isolation duty to treat COVID-19 patients, told The Hindu from Bihar that there was need for an uniform countrywide policy for the return of migrant labour and students to their States and initiatives by the Chief Ministers for this needed clear policy guidelines.
“We are convinced that people need to return home, at least after May 3, but the way host States have handled migrant labour, I doubt if many would like to return before ‘Chhatth’. However poor a person is, at least in rural India, they don’t starve. Cereals and grains are available even to landless labourers. Employers and State governments depending on migrant labour should take this into account, and should have taken better care. Now we want our people back at least after May 3,” he said. “We are looking at the prospect of a fourth lockdown till ‘Chhatth’ in western India, solely on account of labour that powers their economies having returned home.”
Students in Kota
Senior sources in the BJP said the party unit in Bihar was upset that students from the State at coaching centres in Kota and migrant labour from the State were not being brought back home, while other States with BJP led governments like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Assam had provided ways and means of return to their people. “We have made several requests that we too should do this, we are unable to assure the people in our areas that our people outside are alright, as they say that when other BJP-led governments can bring their people home, why can’t we?”
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Chief Minister Nitish Kumar seems to be criticised by allies and Opposition over the issue as perhaps the lone holdout among the Chief Ministers to not facilitate the entry of returning labour and students into Bihar. At Monday’s videoconference the Chief Ministers had with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he emphatically demanded a uniform policy for the return of migrants to their home states, as his own State, he said, had been following the Home Ministry’s guidelines on “shelter in place” or asking people to stay where they were.
Government sources say a new set of guidelines is likely to be out soon.
