Lockdown: Labourers should stay back, says Pune collector

A top official of the Pune district administration on Friday said it expected migrant workers to stay back amid the lockdown for the coronavirus outbreak as permission to resume construction activities has been given. Pune collector Naval Kishore Ram said 68,000 people in the district, including migrant workers, students, families, have sought permission to travel, and state-wise classification of these applicants was underway.

Ram, however, said sending migrant workers back to their native places was not the ultimate goal. "We have given permission to resume construction activities in the district, and at this time we do not expect that the labour force should go out of Pune. So we need to think about how to stop them from going out of the city," he said.

He said migrant labourers will be medically screened before being sent back, adding that 1000-2000 people have so far been sent back to their native districts in the state. He said controlling the COVID-19 situation, in terms of cases and deaths, was vital.

"I am sure the number of cases will increase for the next few days, but at the same time, there is a need to contain the death rate. Despite havinga number of critical patients, one or two deaths are reported from Sassoon General hospital. But at the same time, the number of deaths reported from private hospitals is increasing," he added. He said there as a need to ascertain why the number of deaths in private hospitals was high.

Divisional Commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar said, in order to avoid incidents like the one in Aurangabad where 16 labourers were run over by a train, district authorities will ensure transportation of migrants to railway boarding points. PTI SPK BNM BNM