Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has urged the Centre to frame guidelines to send migrants stuck in the state due to lockdown by April-end, amid indications of an extension in the lockdown, here on Tuesday.
Thackeray conveyed this in a video-conference chat with a 5-member Inter Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) which arrived in the state for an assessment of the Covid-19 management and the lockdown here.
While the state has made adequate arrangements for food and shelter of the ‘guests’ from other states, there have been occasions when the migrants have resorted to agitational methods, like the Bandra incident of April 14 which rattled the Centre and state.
“If the centre apprehends that the Covid-19 impact may worsen between April 30-May 15, then the government must consider running special trains to send the migrants back to their native states, for which guidelines must be formed by April-end. I have already raised this issue with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Thackeray informed the central.
He was speaking with IMCT team members, led by Additional Secretary in Ministry of Food Processing Industry Manoj Joshi, along with Health Minister Rajesh Tope, Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta, BMC Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi and Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh.
The CM urged that ‘end-to-end’ precautions should be taken for migrants from the starting point till they reach their destinations and are sent to home quarantine to prevent further spread of Covid-19.
The state has also asked the Central team to study the status of Covid-19 pandemic and patients in other countries like Dubai and USA, since 80 percent of the patients here are asymptomatic.
Maharashtra has demanded additional stocks of personal protective equipment like masks, gloves, sanitizers, coats and ventilators on a priority basis to ensure safety of the healthcare workers both from the government and private hospitals.
The central team visited the Worli Koliwada fishing village, Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai and other locations in Pune, besides holding discussions on a wide range of subjects pertaining to the pandemic management in the country’s two worst-hit hotspots.-IANS News
