In a move to curb the movement of migrant workers on roads and highways, the Centre on Sunday used the Disaster Management Act to fix responsibility on district magistrates and senior superintendents of police to seal district and state borders while making arrangements for those on the roads to be housed in shelters besides also dissuading such workers from leaving their current place of stay.
The measure followed concerns that continued movement of millions of migrant workers from various cities to the hinterland could lead to a problematic spread of Covid-19 in rural areas and was accompanied with directions to ensure salaries were paid and employment was not terminated during the ongoing national lockdown and the ensuing shuttering of economic activity in large parts of the country. The Supreme Court has observed that panic and fear was becoming a "bigger problem than coronavirus" and sought a report from the Centre on the measures taken to prevent the exodus of labourers.
Responding to questions whether the government was caught unawares by the migrant outflow, Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry, said the entire situation due to the global and national spread of coronavirus was unprecedented in scale and the Centre had done its best to anticipate as well as respond to the developing situation on the ground.
Apart from enforcing the lockdown, states were directed to ensure all employers, be it in the industry or in shops or commercial establishments, shall make payment of wages to their workers, at their workplace, on the due date and without any deduction for the period their establishments are under closure during the lockdown.
It was also said that wherever workers, including the migrants, are living in rented accommodation, landlords shall not demand payment of rent for a period of one month. If a landlord forces labourers or students to vacate premises, the state police have been told to make him liable under the Disaster Management Act.
Death toll mounts to 46
The total number of Covid-19 cases in India reached 1,441 on Tuesday, while the pandemic has claimed 46 lives so far. With 227 new cases added on Monday, there were fears that community transmission may have already begun, but the health ministry said that the disease was still in the local transmission stage.
The government also said there was no immediate plan to extend the 21-day lockdown period, which entered its seventh day on Tuesday, while the Indian Army dismissed as "fake" social media posts about a possible emergency declaration next month.
On Monday, Telangana and Tamil Nadu raised concerns over the possibility of a religious event in Delhi infecting hundreds of people. The Telangana Chief Ministers’ Office reported that
out of those from Telangana who had attended, six had died. It is believed that Covid-19 had spread among some of those who attended a religious prayer meeting from March 13-15 at Markaz in Delhi’s Nizamuddin. Likewise, Tamil Nadu saw a surge of cases on Sunday, with four people linked to two Thai nationals who had attended the prayer meeting in Delhi.
The Tablighi Jamath conference in Delhi saw participation by Islamic preachers from across Asia, including countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan and China. At least 1,500 people from Tamil Nadu attended the conference, out of which the state government has finally arrived at a list of 819 persons to trace.
As fresh cases of coronavirus cases were reported from various parts of the country including in Rajasthan, Haryana, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, including in Noida in the national capital region, the Delhi Police cordoned off a major area in Nizamuddin where several people showed symptoms of coronavirus after taking part in the religious gathering.
Officials said over 2,000 delegates, including from Indonesia and Malaysia, attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin West from March 1-15. More than 200 people have been admitted to hospitals after showing symptoms of the disease and test results for many of them are awaited.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal later ordered FIR against the person who led the congregation. Raman R. Gangakhedkar, Head of Epidemiology and Communicable diseases at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said 38,442 tests have been conducted till now in India, out of which 3,501 were done on Sunday.
