Over 800,000 Migrants left Delhi after the announcement of Lockdown: Govt

Delhi Government says that at least 800,000 Migrants traveled back to their home cities from Delhi during the first four weeks of the lockdown and half of them traveled in the first week only. Arrangements such as buses and others were made for them to avoid the repetition of last year’s crisis.

To deal with the 4^th wave in Delhi, lockdown was implemented between April 19 and May 14. From three inter-state bus terminals, 807,032 persons boarded buses to travel back to their home states.

A report by the state transport department said, “The timely coordination with transport authorities of neighboring states especially Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand by the Delhi government has helped about eight lakh migrant workers reach their destination without any difficulty. There was no complaint of overcharging as the interstate buses were owned and operated by the respective state governments.”

When the lockdown was announced on April 19, the average number of cases per day in Delhi was 20,000. Because of an ever-increasing trend in cases and tremendous pressure on health institutes, lockdown has been extended 4 times since then. At that time, every third person scanned was turning out to be Corona positive.

There were no restrictions on who could travel and who could not travel by buses. Migrant workers made up the majority of the ones who traveled.

An official of transport department said, “The report states the number of passengers who boarded interstate buses from Delhi including the additional buses deployed by various states. The weekly break-up of the same shows that the demand for such transport services was highest during the first week, indicating it is mostly migrant workers and their families who were using these buses to reach their villages.”