Lockdown impact: ‘Virus of hunger is deadlier than coronavirus,’ say stranded migrants at Anand Vihar

Anand Vihar ISBT – the eastern gate of the Capital to enter Uttar Pradesh – continued to witness confusion and chaos on Sundaymorning.

Though the situation was apparently a little better comparison to Saturday night when a mammoth crowd of anxious people overran the bus terminal, thousands of migrants – left stranded in the Capital after PM Modi announced an unplanned 21-day lockdown – were still struggling to find their way home.

Ramnarayan (name changed) who worked as a halwai in Loni, was waiting for evacuation for more than 20 hours.

Holding the hands of his three-year-old son, he along with his wife reached Anand Vihar bus terminal last evening hoping to get some help from the Adityanath Yogi-led UP government, but he was in for disappointment after being asked to wait for a bus.

During the night, which will long be remembered for the horrific congregation of desperate migrants, Ramnarayan could not eat anything even as he ran from pillar to post to get accurate information about the “help-is-on-the-way” announcements made by Delhi Police frequently.

A native of Agra district, Ramnarayan, who voted for Modi and Yogi in the last elections, had decided to walk 220 km on foot to his village, but was stopped by the police near Anand Vihar.

After the announcement of the lockdown, the shop in which he works was closed down and the owner asked him to leave without payment of any wages.

When asked why he was endangering his life and that of his children and wife by exposure to Covid-19, he said, “The virus of hunger is deadlier than coronavirus. We don’t want to die among strangers. Even if I have to die, I want to die among my own people”.

Raju and his brothers passed by when NH was talking to Ramnarayan. Carrying a huge jute bag full of utensils, Raju was desperately asking for the direction to the shopping mall where he was asked to go by the authorities to board the bus.

He had decided to embark on a foot journey to Mahoba, 600 km away from Delhi, but ran into the barricades put by the UP police last afternoon at Anand Vihar. Since then he was waiting for a Mahoba-bound bus to come.

Raju and his brothers worked at a cloth factory located in Laxminagar but the lockdown rendered them jobless.

“Instead of paying rent and struggling for food, we all decided to walk,” he said, cursing Delhi CM Kejriwal and UP CM Adityanath Yogi in the same breath for leaving them without food and assistance.

When asked about the campaign launched by the Modi government against the pandemic, he said, “All these fancy efforts are going to yield no results.”

Pointing out towards a group of some 100 people who were waiting for their turn to board the bus to reach Kanpur, he said, “Dekhiye sab, gaon me agar kisi ko ho gaya to log machharon ki tarah maremge kyunki waha to log bukhar se mar jate hai, corona to badi cheez hai (If anyone get infected with the virus, people will die like mosquitoes)”.

An officer told NH on condition of anonymity that after facing flak in the media, the Yogi government and AAP government seem to have reached some kind of agreement.

Conceding that this should have happened earlier, the officer on duty told NH that DTC buses were ferrying people till Ghaziabad bus stand. Some of the buses have been asked to ferry migrants till Hapur and Meerut.

In a massive evacuation drive, the Yogi government has arranged for 1,000 buses to ferry migrant labourers who were stranded on the border after the media criticism.

According to UP govt, CM Yogi Adityanath was busy issuing instructions for arranging buses for the purpose till midnight on Saturday.

The buses later left for Kanpur, Ballia, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Faizabad, Basti, Pratapgarh, Sultanpur, Amethi, Rae Bareli, Gonda, Etawah, Bahraich and Shravasti on Saturday night.

On Sunday morning, till the time of publicationof this news, the evacuation drive was almost complete but an official present on the spot said, “Operation to ferry migrants to their respective destinations can be completed only by Sunday evening”.