NEW DELHI: Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba has asked the state chief secretaries to make necessary arrangements to mitigate the hardships being faced by migrant workers due to the lockdown. Gauba has asked them to appoint district nodal officers for every relief camp to ensure adequate arrangements for migrant workers living in the camps.
“District collectors must appoint nodal officers who will be responsible for coordinating arrangements for migrant labourers. A senior official should be in charge of each camp,” said a senior official on Thursday.
The move has come in the backdrop of migrant labourers growing restive with the extension of the lockdown.
The official said the camps are needed to be set up for the labourers, including those stranded at various places, to save them from the pandemic. “A lot of videos have emerged of the migrant labourers stuck at places, crammed in small areas, with visible lack of social distancing norms. Therefore, it’s important that the issue is earnestly addressed at the district levels across the country,” he added.
With camps set up by the district administration for the migrant labourers, sources said it would be easier for the government to make direct interventions for their safety and food.The empowered group on economic and social welfare, too, had in a meeting discussed ways to address the plight of the migrants, apart from looking into the concerns of the unorganised sector which may face labour crunch once opened on Monday.