Delhi Police chief asks his personnel to block exodus of migrant labourers

Amid the exodus of migrant workers, the Delhi Police Commissioner Sunday instructed his personnel to disallow them from moving out of the city by enhancing picket deployment and stopping buses going outside Delhi, officials said.

SN Srivastava’s orders came hours after the Centre asked states and union territories to effectively seal all interstate and inter-district borders to stop the movement of migrant workers. The Centre also asked them to arrange food and shelter from them wherever they are.

On Saturday, thousands of migrant workers thronged the Anand Vihar Interstate Bus Terminus on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border to go back to their villages. Srivastava has strictly directed his personnel to stop the movement of migrant workers trying to leave the national capital by increasing the number of pickets across the city and in the border areas with the help of additional forces, he said.

“Deployment of pickets should be enhanced on all the roads leading towards Delhi including places such as metro tracks and railways tracks,” he said in an audio message to his personnel.

Many people were seen trying to walk on the railway track at Anand Vihar to go their home towns in Uttar Pradesh. So, the Commissioner has also directed his forces to deploy more pickets near the tracks to keep a strict vigil on the movement there. All the DCPs, ACPs and SHOs have been instructed to do extensive patrolling in their respective areas and deploy maximum vehicles for patrolling to check the movement.

The officers have also been asked to make announcements in areas with dense mirgant population that the government will pay their full wages. The officers also been asked to create awareness among the moving population about the threat of the spread of coronavirus and also to warn them that strict action will be taken if they are seen on the roads.

The police have also been directed to not allow any movement of DTC buses or any other private bus ferrying migrant population outside the national capital. All DTC buses coming to bus stops and stands should be detained there and not allowed to move outside Delhi, he said.

The officers have been directed to detain and seize the buses at the bus stops and stops even before the transport authorities do it. The officers have also been directed to make announcements in areas of migrant population that no buses will be going outside Delhi towards Uttar Pradesh. 

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