After Amphan, Bengal lacking infrastructure to support lakhs of returnees: Official

The West Bengal government on Tuesday said the state no longer had the infrastructure to support lakhs of returning migrant workers in the wake of the devastation caused by Cyclone Amphan, advising home quarantine for them instead of institutional facilities. Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said the state had the capacity to accept 10-15 trains of migrant workers daily and lakhs of people had returned during the coronavirus lockdown.

The state government considers this a big problem from the point of view of public health, Bandyopadhyay said, adding that the pressure should be "optimal and well managed". "We are trying to simplify certain procedures at the different (interstate) borders, railway stations so that there is no big gathering in the quarantine centres, thereby increasing chances of people being infected by coronavirus," he said. "That is why the Health Department has constituted protocols." The very severe cyclone, the likes of which has not been seen for decades, had barrelled through West Bengal on May 20 amid the lockdown, affecting lakhs of people and claiming 86 lives, besides devastating infrastructure and crops.

According to Bandyopadhyay, people returning to the state in trains or flights and are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic should opt for home quarantine. For those who are severely symptomatic, swab tests with appropriate medical assistance will be followed. The official said the government respects the migrant labourers' decision to return home, but with the devastation caused by Amphan, the state's infrastructure like roads, schools and buildings, health and food for them are insufficient.

"Keeping these in mind, we are in discussion with different state governments to bring in the returnees in a planned and staggered manner so that mutually-acceptable schedules are honoured. So that they (migrant workers) can come back home and not need to stay in unhealthy infrastructure," he said. "That is the reason we are framing our guidelines, stressing on home quarantine instead of institutional quarantine," Bandyopadhyay said, adding that decentralised arrangements for medical isolation were being simplified for the purpose.

The home secretary said that 19 out of the total 225 trains sought by the state government to bring back migrant workers and stranded pilgrims, students and tourists had arrived. People are being allowed to enter the state via the roadways. People from Nepal and Bhutan and other states are coming everyday, the official said. 

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)