MUMBAI: More than 10 lakh non-migrant people are stranded at various parts of the Maharashtra who wish to go back either to their natives or workplaces.
Out of 10 lakh, only 53,000 people have got permission in the last 40 days to travel from one part state to another. Rajendra Pawar, the resident of Vashi in Mumbai said that his ailing parents had come to meet him before the lockdown and now remain stranded at his small house. He said they wish to go back to their native place Dhule, but local authority turned down permission twice.
“My father is a diabetic and high blood pressure patient. He had a regular habit of going to farm in the morning. Due to the lockdown, he cannot come down and do any jogging now. Every day, he asks me to send him to native but I am helpless. Maharashtra government should do something otherwise cases of depression will increase among the elderly,” Pawar said.
The Kalyan Dombivali Municipal authority had issued an order declaring that they will not allow people who go to Mumbai for work to return in the evening. They said it was due to Mumbai people that the number of positive patients are increasing in Kalyan Dombivali. Many among these are the health workers and doctors who travel every day to Mumbai for work.
In charge of coronavirus war room Bhushan Gagrani said that they got a request from local administrations and elected representatives asking government to stop issuing travel pass to Mumbai and Pune residents who want to back to their native.
“There is fear that due to Mumbai and Pune people coronavirus has been spread in rural areas. Therefore the urban and metropolitan people are untouchable in rural areas and their own native places,” said a senior official who requested anonymity.
However, Maha Vikas Aghadi minister Vijay Wadettiwar said that the government had got the request of several stranded people within the state who wants to go back their own places. “We have decided to permit 10,000 government transport buses to travel these within the state stranded people,” Wadettiwar said.