Over 50 social activists, writers, filmmakers, journalists, doctors members of civil society among others of Assam wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the plight of migrant workers in the wake of the lockdown and some other issues related to containment of coronavirus.
The signatories include North Eastern Hill University former professor Apurba Kumar Baruah, Rajya Sabha MP Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, senior journalist Haider Hussain, author Arupa Patangia Kalita, Gauhati High Court advocate Santanau Borthakur, Karbi Anglong-based activist Holiram Terang, senior Journalist Manjit Mahanta, CPI (M-L) central committee member Bibek Das, writer and social activist Rajen Kalita, GNRC Hospitals director (neurosurgery) Dr Navanil Barua among others.
The petition urged the Prime Minister to provide transportation facilities to workers who are walking hundreds of miles so that they can reach their destination and to provide food and shelter to the workers stranded at different places.
The petition stated that it wants the government to stop police harassment of people who are out to buy essential items and for medical emergencies. “Many of these workers have to walk hundreds of miles in the midst of this unprecedented crisis without food, water, transport, medicine or shelter. Most of them won’t be having enough cash with them; nor would they have the prospect of getting any immediate relief. It is unlikely that once they reach home, the situation there would be any better. A large number of migrant workers, including women and children, were forced to take a bath in sodium hypochlorite solution after they arrived in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district. In states like Assam too, police have resorted to lathicharge even on people coming out of home to buy essential items or for some medical emergency,” the petition read.
It said to expand testing for the virus, as most affected nations are doing, ensure availability of WHO-grade protective gear and personal protective equipment (PPE) to all health workers.