UP won’t start evacuation from Delhi before May 3

NOIDA: On Monday, within 24 hours of its buses rolling out of various Haryana cities to bring stranded migrant workers to their hometowns, the UP government’s Maharashtra helplines saw a staggering number of calls for evacuation. Helpline operators received 97,754 calls, said Ranjan Kumar, the nodal officer for Maharashtra. The same day, the state’s Delhi helplines received around 45,000 calls.Based on the surge in helpline calls, and accounts of callers on the number of people — colleagues, acquaintances, friends and family members — who also need transportation back to their hometowns, the numbers from Mumbai Metropolitan Region and NCR alone will run into several lakhs.The numbers indicate that any subsequent evacuation will present a logistical challenge much bigger than the Haryana operation.A ballpark estimate is that there could be up to 10 lakh people in each region still who want to return to their hometowns. This is based on the capacity of shelter homes, assessments by local administrations & state coordination groups and estimates shared by callers who live in rented houses. Officials say duplicate calls have been eliminated but there could be overlaps.Among those calling for evacuation are also residents of neighbouring states, particularly Bihar and Madhya Pradesh as well as Chhattisgarh.On Tuesday, Uttar Pradesh officially asked all states to share data on people from the state who are staying at shelter homes and quarantine facilities for over 14 days and have tested negative for Covid-19 so that they can be brought back.Because of huge numbers, evacuating migrant workers from NCR and MMR isn’t likely to start before May 3, when the extended national lockdown is supposed to end. A senior state government official said, “Delhi-NCR and Maharashtra are the big concern areas and need strategic planning.”For Delhi, the estimates have factored in big economic centres like Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad. Noida alone has an estimated one lakh migrant workers from other districts of UP.“It is being estimated that approximately 10 lakh people want to be evacuated to UP and Bihar. These include five lakh people from Delhi to UP, another 25% from parts of NCR, and another 25-30% who want to go to parts of Bihar,” said an official. Narendra Bhooshan, nodal officer for the evacuations from Delhi, J&K and Ladakh, confirmed estimates were being drawn up.