Labourers take water route, use rubber tubes

Tribune News Service

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Panipat, March 30

Putting life on risk, migrant labourers of Uttar Pradesh are forced to use rubber tubes to cross the Yamuna to reach their respective villages after sealing of the inter-state border on Sunday.

Some swimmers of nearby villages were taking a good amount from these migrant labourers to help them cross the Yamuna.

Hundreds of people of adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh have been work in the industries of Panipat and they were living on rented accommodation. But their factories had been shut down after the government had announced lockdown amid threat of spread of Covid-19.

Migrant labourers have started moving towards their villages but the Police Department has sealed the inter-state border at Sanoli on the Panipat-Haridwar Highway on Sunday afternoon and the police strictly banned the entry and exit of any person from the border.

Due to strictness on the border, the migrant labourers have turned to cross the Yamuna from the kachhe ghats by putting their life on threat in Panipat.

As per the information, around 5-6 feet water is flowing in the river. But some divers of adjoining villages have started helping these migrant labourers to cross the Yamuna by using tubes. They were also charging Rs 200-500 from the migrant labourers to help them in crossing of the Yamuna.

Surender Singh, SHO, Sanoli said he along with his counterpart of the UP Police was patrolling regularly on the banks of the Yamuna. Such activities in the area could not be tolerated and stringent action would be initiated if anyone found involved, the SHO maintained.