35,000 Amreli natives return home from Surat, Mumbai

Rajkot/Palanpur: Villages across Gujarat, particularly in Saurashtra is seeing a sudden back flow of people who are fleeing the cities in the wake of Coronavirus and more from the lockdown. As many as 35,000 people from Surat and Mumbai, those mostly engaged in the diamond industry, started to pour into Amreli in the past one week after businesses and industry started shutting down.
Talking to TOI, Amreli district collector Ayush Oak said, “Nearly 35,000 people returned to Amreli district in the past one week. We have created checkposts and screened everybody before they entered into the district.”
According to the district administration, 99 people had a travel history of foreign countries, while 38 had flu-like symptoms and have been ordered home quarantine for two weeks.
Kamal Patel, a diamond worker, who returned to Abhrampara of Savarkundla taluka on March 21 said, “We were jobless as the industry has shutdown in Surat. We are also scared of contracting Coronavirus. So we decided to come back to native for a few days.”
According to sources, with every taluka of Amreli district seeing people rush in, in private vehicles, there is a heavy traffic jam on the roads connected to Amreli.
A private bus operator who runs between Surat and Amreli said, “There was a heavy rush of people coming to Amreli last week. But even buses have stopped now.”
Bhupendrasinh Jadeja, sarpanch of Dhulia Domla village of Lodhika taluka in Rajkot district said that he hasn’t seen so many people during Diwali festival coming to their native. “I feel that it’s the rebirth of villages,” Jadeja added.
However, after the lockdown, all the districts have sealed their borders, even for private vehicles. This has actually made the scene pathetic for many unprivileged people, who had no option but to walk long distances as their employers shut shop asking them to leave at once.