At a time when stories of anguish and violent protests in quarantine centres for migrants in different parts of Bihar are going viral on social media everyday, the government has said effective steps are being taken to resolve the problem.
The government is running over 3,600 centres at the block level and over 170 relief camps for the migrants to stay put in confinement for 21 days. According to government data, over 1.22 lakh migrants are quarantined while over 68,000 are staying put at the relief camps.
In recent days, these migrants had posted several videos on the social media complaining about the lack of food, basic amenities and improper behaviour by local officials. In some videos, they were seen defecating in open areas due to lack of toilets.
On Tuesday, a video showed over 250 migrant workers in the government middle and high schools at Pandarak, near Barh in Patna rural area, blocking the highway over amenities and substandard food.
Similar videos came from the West Champaran district. Some others were seen marching to the local Yogapatti police station protesting against insanitary conditions. They complained that 25 of them are being kept in a single room without any masks, sanitisers and soaps.
On Wednesday, migrant workers reaching the Barauni railway station in Begusarai looted food packets stacked for them by the district administration. In the video, they are also seen running away skipping the mandatory screening test at the platform.
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The migrant workers from the Piprasi block reportedly rued the stale food with worms served to them. Several such videos have been pouring in from Purnea, Saharsa, Katihar, Bhojpur, Kaimur, Rohtas, Sitamarhi, Nawada, Banka, Begusarai, Muzaffarpur and Siwan districts too.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is said to be monitoring the situation round the clock with everyday review meetings and video conferencing with district Magistrates, directing them to provide all basic amenities like soaps, mugs, buckets, masks, three-time meals and milk for children there.
“The State government is running around 3,500 quarantine centres at a very short notice…nevertheless, the complaints about lack of facilities may be coming from not even 1% of these centres…the government has instructed all DMs to resolve any such complaints or issues without any delay,” Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said.
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Torture camps, says Opposition
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav tweeted on Tuesday in Hindi, “Quarantine centres have been converted into torture camps.”
Along with his tweet, he also uploaded a video of a migrant worker who had come from Karnataka and staying at a quarantine centre in Shambhuganj block of Banka district, showing his fractured hand. The worker is heard complaining his hand was fractured when cops thrashed him for asking for better quality of food.
Mr. Tejashwi Yadav returned to Bihar on Monday after a prolonged absence due to the lockdown. He was said to be stranded in Delhi but has been taking on the government on social media for its failure to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The testing in Bihar is worryingly low while the surge of positive cases is alarmingly high,” he tweeted on Tuesday and demanded that “at least 5,000 tests need to be done every day in the State”.
Meanwhile, 1.33 lakh migrants have returned to Bihar by 96 trains from May 10 while 2.5 lakh are expected to reach in the next one week by 167 trains.
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On Wednesday, 24 trains are scheduled to reach different stations in Bihar carrying over 30,000 passengers.
Bihar, so far, has reported 879 positive cases with 390 recovered and 483 active cases. While 39,918 sample tests have been done, seven deaths have been reported due to the pandemic.
