Having missed the bus, labourers land in school shelter

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 30

It was a case of literally missing the bus but instead of staying at home, these migrants landed in a school – the makeshift shelter for those who reached Delhi-UP border on Sunday evening onwards.

With the Centre insisting that the lockdown orders be implemented without exception and the UP Government having completed its run of buses to cart away migrants from the metropolis to distant places in the state, those who landed later had no other place to go but these shelters.

The Delhi Government’s decision to convert its schools as shelters for those who wish to stay away from their shanties or migrants who hoped to escape the confines of places of stay closer to work, there was hope.

For those late birds who ventured out of their places of stay hoping to reach the comfort of their homes in parts of UP were in for a surprise. Having left where they stayed to catch a bus, they realised the buses had stopped and authorities insisting that they stay put where they are disallowing to return from where they left in neighbouring Delhi/NCR region.

Housed in a school at Ghazipur, close to Delhi-UP border near the Kaushambi bus depot, The Tribune spoke to a few of those who seemed comfortable with the arrangements but for an odd one regretting the decision to leave familiar surroundings and comfort of their place near work and venturing out. “We gathered that buses were picked from Kaushambi depot but by the time we came at 8 pm on Sunday the service was stopped. The government should have given us two or three days to return…now we are here…while we get everything but it is not the same as being at your place…” said a woman with a tinge of regret.

At the centre, a Delhi Government official Ravi Chandra told The Tribune that keeping in view norms of social distancing, the school can house 2,000 people and at present some 200 were staying.

All arrangements for are breakfast, lunch, dinner and tea is made and soon these people would be provided personal sanitation kits containing soaps, toothpaste and sanitary napkins, for women, he said.