Rajkot police commissioner Manoj Agrawal on Friday issued an order to all builders and factory owners to prevent migrant labourers working in their units from leaving the city.
The order was issued after thousands of labourers were seen returning to their natives on foot, leaving the city. “If a labourer is COVID-19 positive, he is likely to infect many others in his village when he reaches there. Keeping this in mind, the commissioner has issued the order,” said Agrawal.
Most of the migrant labourers working in Rajkot city and district are from Dahod, Godhra, Chhota Udepur and Jhabua and Alirajpur of Madhya Pradesh.
Agrawal told reporters: “The builders and factory owners have been asked to provide their labourers free food, boarding and lodging. If any builder or a factory owner is unable to do so, he may contact NGOs to provide the facilities. There are several NGOs in the city providing free food and other essential. If it is found that any builder or factory owner has asked his labourers to leave the city, he will be booked for the violation of the government’s lockdown order.”
For the citizens of Rajkot, the commissioner said that arrangements had been made to provide all essential commodities including vegetables, milk and grocery items at their doorsteps. “We have made public the list of medical store owners with their cellphone numbers who can provide medicines at the doorsteps of the citizens when called up,” said Agrawal.
“Apart from the vehicles of the government officials and the members of NGOs providing relief materials to the citizens, no vehicle will be permitted to ply on the roads,” the commissioner added.
Balram Meena, superintendent of police, Rajkot rural, has also issued a similar order to all the builders and factory owners of Rajkot district.
On Friday, thousands of migrant labourers were stopped leaving the city by the police at Greenland Chowkdi, Madhapar Chowkdi, Raiya Chowkdi, Gondal Road Chowkdi and Maliyasan. They were provided with meals and made to return to their sites and factories.
On Thursday, 1,000-odd labourers were seen on the roads in the city. They were caught and made to return to their respective sites and factories.
