NEW DELHI: Migrant labourers from Madhya Pradesh are being lugged and herded in trucks from Gujarat’s economic capital Surat and being sent home on “fake passes” without any health screening.
Several trucks lugging and herding migrants returning from Gujarat have been coming to Satna district of Madhya Pradesh since last three four days.
But the passes on the basis of which these trucks are being sent to MP’s Satna district from Surat seem to be fake, as all these passes bear the seal of the same office, but with different signatures.
The development has made the Satna district administration to strongly believe that some organized syndicate in Gujarat could be behind lugging these migrant labourers.
According to Satna district collector Ajay Katesaria, “Migrant labourers hailing from our district have returned in two phases, around 16,000 to 17,000 returned before the lockdown started and the second lot is returning now from Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat. But the migrants returning in trucks and mini-trucks are posing problem for us, particularly as each truck is containing 60-70 migrants and their kin, in flagrant violation of social distancing norms.”
“Another problem with the migrants returning on trucks from Surat is that the passes issued appeared to be fake. The passes have been issued from SDM Office, but each pass bears different signatures.”
“Also, there is no distinctive serial number on any of these passes and neither there is E-record of these passes, making us strongly believe that these passes haven’t been issued by any government office in Surat, but instead are the handiwork of some organised racket indulgent in making fake passes,” the Satna district collector maintained.
“We’ve impounded some trucks coming from Surat and have directed the police to register cases against the drivers and truckers,” he added.According to the migrant labourers who returned to Satna recently by these trucks from Surat, “each passenger on the truck had to pay Rs 3000 to Rs 4000 for boarding these trucks.”