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Updated: Apr 26, 2020 18:00 IST

While the migrants, faced with uncertainty and fear, are desperate to return to their native places in Bihar and the Patna High Court gets ready to hear four PILs (public interest litigations) on the issue on Monday, an alarmed Bihar government is working out plans to deal with the prospect of another deluge of migrants returning home leading to a spike in the spread of COVID-19 in the state.

The government has reasons to be worried since some of the migrants, who managed to reach state using desperate and daring means despite the lockdown, have tested positive for the disease and there is no telling how many of the new lot, it if is allowed to return, will end up becoming the transmitters of disease if not checked in time.

“It is a fact that one cannot prevent migrants from coming for a long time as many states have already started doing it despite lockdown. They were stopped in the larger interest, but in the case of Bihar, it will be a tough ask due to the sheer magnitude and risk involved. Many of those who have reached have proved why travelling in the midst of lockdown is fraught with risk,” said an official, adding the state would have to keep its plan ready to tackle another surge, as the number of returning migrants could go into several lakhs, even if just one-third of the 22-lakh migrants, who have got registered for Bihar government’s assistance of Rs 1000 each, return.

During Bihar chief secretary Deepak Kumar’s video conferencing with senior health and field officials, it came to light that eight migrant labourers who reached Bihar from different states during lockdown have tested positive.

Arwal district magistrate (DM) said that a migrant worker who returned from Gurgaon on April 19 had tested positive, while Saran DM said that another person who drove his own car from Vadodara in Gujarat to Bihar on April 15, without a valid pass, had also tested positive.

In another such instance, a person reached Bhagalpur from Mumbai travelling in an ambulance via Gorakhpur, Gopalganj, Begusarai, Naugachia and got himself admitted in the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College. He was found Covid-19 positive on April 20.

“There were three persons with him in the ambulance. One of them has also tested positive, while the results of two others are still awaited and contact tracing is on. Some people who came in contact with them have already been quarantined,” Banka district magistrate said.

District magistrates of Patna and Bhojpur have also reported incidents of people returning to Bihar from states like Delhi and Haryana despite the restrictions before they were found coronavirus positive.

The chief secretary directed all the DMs to maintain a close vigil on all the migrants reaching the state and to ensure 100% testing so that they could be accordingly quarantined to prevent the spread of the infection.

“Awareness should be increased at the Panchayat level, particularly in bordering districts, so that prompt information about migrants reaching home could reach the authority for timely action,” he added.

The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19

Pushpendra, professor and chairperson, Patna Centre of the Tata Institute of social sciences (TISS), said that return of migrants was natural, as they had been left with a Hobson’s choice after being rendered jobless in the midst of a pandemic away from home and family.

“They cannot sustain outside without work. Bihar will need to bring about policy changes to deal with the situation not only to cater to their immediate needs but also for the long term,” he added.

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