On Thursday, at least 15 migrants from Kunjpura area of Haryana tried to swim across Yamuna to enter Shamli’s Chausana village

MEERUT: At least 12 manual workers recently crossed the Yamuna, which doubles up as border between Haryana and UP on some stretches, on their way home, before they were caught and quarantined in Shamli. All of them worked in Panipat’s vegetable market and were forced to leave after their “employer stopped giving them food”. They were marching to Kaushambi, about 765kms from Panipat, when some villagers in Shamli’s Gangeru village spotted them and alerted police on Tuesday.

On Thursday evening, at least 15 migrants from Kunjpura area of Haryana tried to swim through Yamuna to enter Shamli’s Chausana village. But villagers alerted police and they were sent back.

Just like them, hundreds of workers stuck in neighbouring Haryana cities are looking towards the river to recede, putting the already overstretched police force in a fix. After barricading roads and sealing the borders, the department never thought that it will have to man the river also, a senior officer said.

Yamuna marks UP’s border with Haryana in Shamli and Baghpat districts.

In the first week of April, police arrested a number of migrants using inflated tubes to cross Yamuna. The tubes were provided by villagers for which they charged 200-300 per person. After the police crackdown, the practice stopped.

The district administration in Shamli on Friday held several meetings with locals and heads of villages, located on the Yamuna banks and appealed to them to immediately alert if anyone tries to cross over into UP.

When contacted, Shamli’s district magistrate Jasjeet Kaur said, “Most of these labourers are not residents of Shamli. They are from other parts of UP like Gorakhpur, Varanasi, etc. We cannot send them to their districts because of lockdown. It is the government’s decision that labourers have to stay where they are. When we send these workers back, we do inform Haryana authorities to accommodate them in shelter homes. In Karnal alone, we have reports that over 740 UP labourers are in shelter homes.”

