The Bengal government on Thursday urged the Centre to frame detailed guidelines before states could begin facilitating the return of migrant labourers to their native places, and also suggested that the process be conducted in phases.
The state also made it clear that it had no problem in taking back its migrant labourers.
“During a videoconference with the cabinet secretary, we made it clear that we want our people back.… If all of a sudden, thousands come to the border of the state without informing us, there will be chaos,” Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha said at the daily media briefing on the pandemic.
He explained why the state needed proper guidelines from the Centre before such a large-scale movement starts. On Wednesday, the Centre had decided to let the stranded migrants return but shifted the responsibility of organising the travel to the states.
Sinha said medical screening should be done at the place from where the migrant labourers would start their journey, and that such checking should be carried out at the final destination too.
The chief secretary pointed out that the state would have to make arrangements to ferry the people home from the drop points because the lockdown might still be in place when they reach. Besides, the state government would not allow those coming from outside to enter the containment zones.
The state would also have to set up institutional quarantine facilities for a large number of people as many of the migrants might not have home quarantine facilities.
“About 2 lakh people from the state are stuck elsewhere…. We expect the Centre to consider the issues carefully,” Sinha said.
He suggested that if the migrants are sent in phases, it would be better for the state. “If we don’t get details of every person coming, we won’t be able to plan properly,” Sinha said.
“We are not sure what the large-scale movement would result in. If it (Covid-19) spreads, initiatives taken during the lockdown would get diluted to some extent,” said the chief secretary.
Nearly 100 buses from Kota in Rajasthan will reach Bengal with 2,400 students and their guardians by Friday. These buses will take back about 3,000 people from Rajasthan stuck in Bengal.
“All required arrangements, like taking the students back to their districts from Durgapur, Asansol and Siliguri, have been made. Similarly, we have made arrangements to take stuck people from Rajasthan to these three places from where the buses will leave for Rajasthan,” an official said.
Similarly, arrangements have been made to receive nearly 25,000 migrants from Jharkhand and send a similar number of people back to the neighbouring state. Discussions are on with the Uttar Pradesh government to facilitate such inter-state travel.