10 migrants set off on foot from Pune for hometown in UP

Left without jobs and desperate to return home amid the lockdown, 10 migrant labourers have set off on foot from Pune in Maharashtra for their native place hundreds of kilometres away in Uttar Pradesh.

The Pune administration has asked the officials concerned to make necessary arrangements for such migrants at hotels and halls available on highways in the district and set up camps for them, in the wake of the death of 16 migrant labourers after being run over by a goods train in Aurangabad.

The 10 migrant workers, all natives of Allahabad district in Uttar Pradesh, started walking to their homes from Pune on Saturday evening after losing their jobs and finding to difficult to sustain their livelihood here.

"We all were working as construction labourers in Pune. Now we don't have food to survive. Therefore, we have started for our native place in Uttar Pradesh," one of the labourers from the group said.

Pune District Collector Naval Kishore Ram has ordered tehsildars and block development officers to immediately set up labour camps along the main roads where migrants may be walking towards their destinations, zilla parishad CEO Ayush Prasad said on Sunday.

"The camps would be set up at roadside hotels and wedding halls at reasonable distance from each other on three roads leading to Nashik, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The tehsilar would decide the number and location of camps based on the requirement. We are expecting at least 35 camps in the district," he said.

At each camp, there would be facility of water, toilets, safe place to stay, food and basic medical care, including facility of checkup for flu-like symptoms, he said.

Migrants can also register online through the state's 'Aaple Sarkar portal' to access transport facilities being provided by the government, the official said.

Adequate police security would also be deployed at the camps for the safety of migrants, women and children and an official would also be appointed as the camp manager, he said.

The camp expenses would be met through the state disaster relief fund, he said, adding that each taluka has been given Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh as advance to provide relief.