Madhya Pradesh: Migrants run amok, pelt stones at cops after waiting for food for nine hours amid COVID-19 lockdown

Amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak that is spreading across India like wildfire, clashes erupted in Sendhwa on the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border on Thursday after thousands of hungry and thirsty migrant labourers went on a rampage after waiting for nine hours for food. Cellphone videos recorded from the spot show hundreds of people screaming and running on the shoulder beside the National Highway 3. They jammed the traffic on the streets and even pelted stones at the police.

Why had the migrant labourers resorted to such behaviour? According to reports, the people headed towards Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar from Maharashtra have become a law and order issue for the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Madhya Pradesh state government. A flux of migrants has been steadily witnessed, specifically in areas such as Sendhwa, and the local administration is allegedly failing to keep up with measures to handle it.

“People here are travelling with month-old babies. The Maharashtra government sent us here, but our own government is holding us up. We have been here since last night, hungry and thirsty,” said Sunit Mishra, who works in Pune. The hapless people are stranded in a jungle with no security. “No one cares about us,” said Mishra who wants to go to Satna.

Barwani collector Amit Tomar said that stone-pelting took place as some migrants felt after the buses left that there would not be any more vehicles for those left behind, but officials reassured them and calmed them down.

Notably, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has personally appealed to the migrants not to panic.

"Arrangements for food, temporary stay, medical check-up and buses have been made", he assured.

The state government also said that about 15,000 migrant labourers were taken from Sendhwa border (Bijasen Ghat border) to other places in the past three days as there has been a huge influx from Maharashtra.

Migrant workers were being transported by buses for free to Dewas transit point after providing them food and conducting medical tests, it said. From Dewas, they are sent to Sagar, Chhatarpur, Guna and Shivpuri by buses.

Meanwhile, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced the second tranche of economic stimulus package which focused on migrant workers, street vendors, and small farmers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Tuesday already announced a cumulative package of Rs 20 lakh crore (nearly 10% of GDP) to provide relief to various segments of the economy. The package includes the already announced PM Garib Kalyan Yojana, providing grains and cash to the poor, and Rs 5.6 lakh crore stimulus provided through various monetary policy measures by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in India is nearing the 82,000-mark, while the death toll has already crossed the 2,600-mark.