Poll strategist and former Janata Dal (United) leader Prashant Kishor on Monday took on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar while posting on his social media account a video of migrant labourers locked inside a room, crying and begging to be released.
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Mr. Kishor was expelled from the JD(U) after he had fallen out with Mr. Kumar on issues such as the CAA, NRC and the NPR.
“One more frightening picture of official efforts to protect people from the coronavirus epidemic - poor migrants who came from various parts of the country after suffering many hardships are subjected to this heart-wrenching arrangement for social distancing and quarantine by Nitish Kumar”, tweeted Mr. Kishor with hashtag #NitishMustQuit.
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The video is said to be from Guthani of Siwan district, which shares its border with Uttar Pradesh.
“Since morning they have been telling us to let us go as the bus is coming but there is no bus yet….they’re are not letting us go …we too have our children in our villages”, says a man with his face covered among the crowd in the video.
“Please help us get out...we want to go home and nothing else”, he says while others nod in affirmation. They are said to be coming to their home State Bihar from UP, Delhi and other States.
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The Bihar government has made arrangement in local schools in border areas to quarantine the returning migrant labourers.
At Siwan, Kaimur and Buxar districts which share their border with U.P., such arrangements have been made. Some enraged migrants made a ruckus on Sunday at Kaimur border.
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Siwan Superintendent of Police Abhinav Kumar told local journalists that “those who have been stopped at the border have to undergo certain formalities like medical screening and taking down their details, before we let them go”.
Until now, more than 40,000 migrants have crossed Bihar border through U.P. and many more are expected to come in the next two-three days, said a senior Bihar official engaged in making arrangements for those coming into the State.
In Patna, the district officials have made arrangements for food and stay for migrants at four places where a very handful of them were seen on Monday.
