BERHAMPUR: Grappling with a severe COVID-19 crisis wrought on by the reverse migration from other states, Ganjam is staring at a repeat of such trend which may aggravate the situation in the district.
The district received a whopping 10 lakh migrant workers since the last week of March and their arrival led to a steep hike in positive cases. However, as their erstwhile workplaces have started reopening, a substantial chunk of such workers have started leaving for other states.
Though, the administration had tried to provide employment to the returnees through MGNREGA, they are not interested to take up the 'menial' jobs beneath their skill-level. Being acquainted to urban city-life, they also have become restless in the villages. Further, they have exhausted their savings and the incentive money and thus going back to their workplaces.
With industrial activities commencing, brokers of various companies have reached the district to woo the migrants to return to work in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. And, a sizeable number of workers have already left for Chennai and Surat in the last 10 days.
However, the headache for the district administration lies in the fact that due to the intensifying coronavirus spread in those states, the workers will again return home and spur a new wave of infections here.
Odias who have established their own business units in Surat have, meanwhile, warned the workers not to return to the city. BJP leader Srikant Padhy, who has been working for the welfare of migrant Odias, said the situation in Surat is alarming.
Almost all spinning mills in the city are closed. A few workers from can get engaged in the around 20 per cent of the mills which are functioning at present. This will leave a large number of returning Odisa without jobs and the city is not safe as of present.
Bhabagrahi Panda, who runs a printing company in the city and had engaged around 1,200 workers, said the times have changed and the workers from the district may not be as lucky when it comes to getting a job in Surat. In such situation, they are likely to return to their native places.
Citizens' Forum convenor Dr Sudhansu Pati urged the district administration to stop the migrant workers from going to their workplaces as their return again will worsen the situation in the Covid hotspot of Odisha. Instead the skilled workers must be encouraged to set up their own textile units on cooperative basis, he said.
Ganjam was the first district in the State to initiate preventive measures to curb COVID-19. It was in the green zone till May 2 but now is on the top of the list in in terms of cases and deaths. The massive surge in cases can be attributed to mismanagement during the crucial month of April when the workers returned in jam packed buses. The influx continued after Shramik special trains were started. What’s worse is that many migrant workers managed to escape the mandatory quarantine and spread the virus in their villages.
The district administration has been striving hard to fight the virus. However, even as the battle is far from over, the administration, which overlooked several instances of violations by the workers during their arrival to the district, is now repeating its mistake by allowing them to return to their workplaces.