Lack of milk for children, unpalatable food, unavailability of mosquito nets, poor sanitation. Migrant workers and their families who returned to Bihar, hoping that life in lockdown would be better in their home state, have been dumped into quarantine centres without even the basic amenities.

A labourer in a centre in Rohtas district summed up their plight. When he requested a cup of tea in the morning, those manning the centre just laughed at him.

The state government has banned the entry of media persons into these centres to prevent bad publicity. The Telegraph took a peek into the centre in Rohtas located in the district’s Dehri block, 140km southwest of state capital Patna.

All the 66 people quarantined at the centre are residents of Dehri, which is in keeping with a plan to quarantine migrants in their home block. The following are accounts of some of those this correspondent could speak to on Friday.

Narendra Lal could not bear the wails of his two hungry children. He and his family were among two-dozen people who returned from Gujarat by a Shramik Special Train on Thursday. After they arrived at Chhapra station they were put on a bus for the 150km journey to the Dehri centre. The migrants reached the centre close to midnight and will be there for 21 days.

There was no food when they arrived, so they waited for daybreak. Morning came but there was still nothing to eat. As the hours passed, the 10 children in the group started crying.

“Some of us then went up to the main gate and made such noise that the security personnel finally moved. Some officials came and gave small packets of biscuits that cost Rs 5 to each of the children. We are feeling so helpless,” Narendra said.

A woman at the centre, Saroj Devi, who had also returned from Gujarat, was worried about her two-year-old son.

“My son eats a little bit of rice but mainly has milk. The officials should have arranged for some milk for the children here. I am sure their children would be having enough milk to drink. Thoda hamaare liye bhi le aate (They should have brought some milk for us too),” Saroj said.

The government officials came with food around noon — rice, dal and vegetables. The children too had the same food.

Rice, dal and vegetables are the staple for lunch. For dinner it’s rice and vegetables.

All those this newspaper spoke to at the quarantine centre complained about the food, brought in plastic packets and left under a shed.

“Sometimes the rice is half-cooked, sometimes the dal runs like water on the plate. The lunch and dinner timings are a problem too. They provide lunch around 12-12.30pm and then dinner around 6-6.30pm. We are not accustomed to eat like this,” said Niranjan Kumar, who has returned from Rajasthan.

Niranjan had arrived at Danapur, 130km from Dehri, before being taken to Rohtas.

Complaints about the food being served have been pouring in from quarantine centres across Bihar, barring a few around the state capital and one or two elsewhere in the 534 blocks spread across 38 districts.

Poor food for lunch and dinner is not the only complaint. “It is true that we are labourers, but that does not mean we don’t need breakfast,” said Sanjeev Kumar, who has returned from Kerala.

“The officials have provided us half a kilo of chana (gram) and a bit of gur (jaggery). We are supposed to soak the gram in water overnight and have it as breakfast. Those who gave us the packets said that should be sufficient for 10 to 15 days. We know it won’t last more than five days.”

Srinivas Pal, 35, kept punching his head softly. He has had a dull headache since he arrived at the quarantine centre from Kerala on the intervening night of May 4 and 5.

“I have not had tea ever since I arrived here. It is giving me headaches and I feel low on energy. I asked the government officials here to provide at least one cup in the morning, but they just laughed,” Pal said.

Medical experts say tea contains caffeine and tannin to which people could become addicted. If suddenly stopped, it could lead to headache, fatigue, irritability and muscle aches.

Asked about the shortcomings at the quarantine centre, Dehri block development officer (BDO) Arun Kumar Singh said: “There is no provision of providing tea at quarantine centres. The food we are providing is being cooked at a couple of schools with the help of the cooks who prepare midday meal for students. We are exploring ways to start kitchens at quarantine centres.”

A peek into the centre revealed a general lack of cleanliness, especially at the toilets. The nights are worse.

That’s when the mosquitoes come.

The lucky ones among those quarantined sought and received mosquito nets from their relatives living in nearby villages. But others have been spending sleepless nights.

“We now feel we committed a blunder by coming back to Bihar. The way we are being treated makes us feel as if we are in a prison,” Pal said.

The migrants, however, said they had been provided with buckets, mugs, soaps, a set of dhotis, inner wear and gamchha (thin towel), as well as steel utensils – a plate, glass and a bowl. All that came after a wait of around two days, but it has been appreciated.

Earlier, on Wednesday, perturbed by media reports of glaring deficiencies at quarantine centres across the state, Bihar chief secretary Deepak Kumar had held a video conference with district magistrates and directed them to stop the entry of media persons inside the centres.

The disaster management department (DMD), which is in charge of all the quarantine centres, swung into action and organised a training session by video link on Thursday for BDOs, station house officers and medical officers for efficiently running the quarantine centres.

A government source told The Telegraph the DMD’s move to organise the training session indicated there was “no prior preparation on how to manage the quarantine centres”. “The department woke up only after adverse reports surfaced in the media,” the source added.

In all, 24 trains from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Haryana had arrived at stations across Bihar on Thursday, carrying 28,000 migrant workers. Another 18 trains arrived on Friday.