Amid curfew imposed in Maharashtra, migrant workers begin leaving state

DY365
Published: April 14,2021 08:10 AM

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After the Maharashtra govt on Tue announced the imposition of Section 144 in the state from Wed in view of rising COVID-19 cases, some migrant workers have started returning to their native places

April 14, 2021: After the Maharashtra government on Tuesday announced the imposition of Section 144 in the state from Wednesday in view of rising COVID-19 cases, some migrant workers have started returning to their native places.

The migrant workers can be seen leaving for their home states at key transit points in the city including, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai.

Shivam Pandey, who hails from Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi told ANI that they do not want to go through the pain they endured during the lockdown last year.

“Now that curfew has been imposed, what would we do here? What would we eat? We are leaving the city because we do not want to go through the pain we endured during the lockdown,” he said.

The country had last year witnessed a major movement of migrants labourers and workers after the imposition of a nationwide lockdown in the last week of March.

The nationwide lockdown resulted in an exodus of migrant workers from cities to their native places.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday announced a series of strict restrictions in the state till May 1 including the imposition of Section 144 from Wednesday in view of rising COVID-19 cases and but said he will not term the new restrictions as “lockdown”.

Under the new guidelines, all establishments, public places, activities will remain closed in the state. Only essential services will be exempted, and their operations to be unrestricted.

The guidelines said that cinema halls, theatres, auditoriums, amusement parks, gyms, sports complexes will remain closed till Section 144 is imposed in the state.

Shooting for films, serial, ads will remain suspended in Maharashtra from 8 pm, April 14 till 7 am May 1. All shops, malls, shopping centres not performing essential services will also remain closed during this time.

Maharashtra had reported 60,212 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. Mumbai reported 7,898 new cases and 26 deaths in the last 24 hours, while Nagpur district reported 6826 new COVID19 cases, 3518 recoveries, and 65 deaths, on Tuesday. (ANI)