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Of the around 10 lakh migrant workers who had returned to their native states and villages from Maharashtra after the lockdown was imposed, over 15,500 have been returning to the state every day, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said on Thursday.
According to records maintained by the police at railway stations and bus stands across the state, nearly 11,500 workers are returning to Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) daily. The rest are going to Gondia, Nandurbar, Kolhapur, Nagpur and Pune.
Speaking to mediapersons, Deshmukh said that now that businesses are slowly opening up, several migrant workers working at these places are returning from their hometowns. He added that they are being made to undergo thermal screenings once they arrive and in case they show no symptoms of Covid-19, they are sent to home quarantine for 14 days.
According to the state home department, majority of the migrant workers have been returning to Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Raigad and Pune. “Most are coming by trains,” an official said.
The official added that initially, when outstation trains started plying from June 1, around 8,000 migrant workers were coming in daily. However, the numbers have now increased to over 15,000. “ As days go by, the numbers are only going to increase as more and more businesses are opening up.”
As per rough estimates, at least 1 lakh migrants have already returned to the state, an official said. Police personnel have been deployed at railway stations to ensure that a record of those returning to the state is maintained and necessary safety precautions are followed. “Following thermal screening, those who appear to have high temperature are taken to quarantine centres,” the official said.