Hundreds, if not thousands, of migrant workers who violated the protocol escaped Covid-19 tests at Hatia train station in Jharkhand and Buxar train station in Bihar.
Migrant workers at Hatia Railway Station in Ranchi (Photo credit: Satyajeet Kumar / India Today)
HIGHLIGHTS
- Two special trains carrying migrant workers arrived at Hatia station on Friday morning
- A train carrying migrant workers from Pune arrived at Buxar station on Friday evening
- Viral photos and videos of the incidents show hundreds of Covid-19 tests at the train stations
Hundreds of migrant workers broke police barriers at Hatia Railway Station in Ranchi to avoid Covid-19 tests. The incident highlighted the negligence of the Jharkhand County Administration and Health Department.
According to officials, two Special trains with migrant workers from Surat and Mumbai arrived at Hatia train station on Friday morning. Some estimates suggest that there were nearly 2,500 migrant workers on the two trains.
At the station, teams from district officials and the Department of Health were deployed to test passengers entering Jharkhand from other states following Covid-19. Barricades were erected for this purpose.
The train from Mumbai arrived at Hatia station around 3:15 p.m. Since no Covid-19 test kits were available at the time, the migrant workers had to wait two to three hours.
Migrant workers at Hatia Railway Station in Ranchi (Photo credit: Satyajeet Kumar / India Today)
Excited migrant workers decided to break the barricades and fled the station.
Meanwhile, the train from Surat arrived at 5:30 p.m. and a similar turn of events took place.
Where, on the one hand, strict restrictions are imposed to contain the spread of the virus and drives are put in place to ensure the use of face masks, the Jharkhand incident is likely to raise alarm bells.
Chaos at Buxar station
Similar scenes took place at the Buxar train station in Bihar, where a train carrying migrant workers from Pune arrived on Friday evening.
A video of the incident is now viral on social media.
In the video Dozens of migrant workers can be seen Walk to the exit of Buxar train station to avoid being tested for Covid-19.
The district administration still has to make a statement in this regard.
Local councilor Jay Tiwari said the incident frightened locals who fear they could become infected due to the county government’s failures.
(With contributions from Aakash Kumar)
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