After the Uttar Pradesh police increased patrolling on the Haryana border to stop migrant workers from entering the State, the workers have started crossing the Yamuna in Saharanpur.
On Tuesday, three local residents were arrested for helping such migrant workers cross the river, under the charges of breaking lockdown norms and endangering the lives of the workers, the police said. An official release stated that the three persons were arrested under Sections 188, 269 and 270 of the IPC and Section 3 of the Epidemic Act, 1897.
The release said that the arrested persons also named six of their accomplices who, they said, had fled the spot. They helped migrant workers cross the river with the help of inflated rubber tubes and allegedly also charged from them.
Images and videos have surfaced in which locals can be seen pushing an inflated tube in the river with at least half-a-dozen people on it. Local sources said the migration was more rampant in Chilkana area where the water is shallow.
Dinesh Kumar P, Senior Superintendent of Police (Saharanpur) told The Hindu , “Patrolling has been increased along the 70-km long border that the district shares with Yamuna Nagar district of Haryana... We have arrested persons who are endangering the lives of workers in the name of helping them. They are using their situation to make money. The migrant workers have been sent to shelter homes. Following the policy of the State government, we are not sending back any migrant worker in distress.”
Asked if the district administration could use boats to bring these workers from the Haryana border, Mr. Kumar said only those migrant workers were being received who were sent by the Haryana government through the inter-State border. “There is a process. We are dealing with at least 10,000 migrant workers. We have so far sent at least 70,000 workers to Bihar and U.P. But the spillover is so much that the Haryana government has not been able to put all the migrants in shelter homes or quarantine centres.”
