BHUBANESWAR: The revised guidelines of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) have come as a relief for the State Government which is bracing up for receiving about 10 lakh Odia migrant workers from other states once the lockdown restrictions are lifted.
The Ministry on Wednesday issued revised guidelines for movement of stranded persons, including migrant workers, between states stating that they can be kept in home quarantine unless the assessment by local health authorities requires them to be kept in institutional quarantine.
The returnees would be kept under watch with periodic health check-ups, the guidelines stated.
After announcing the decision to bring back stranded migrant workers from other states, the Government had declared that they will be kept under institutional quarantine at the panchayat level after registration.
As the task appears difficult to be implemented, the Government now seems to be having second thoughts over the issue.
The Government has so far readied 1,74,766 beds in 7,108 temporary health centres completed in 6,798 panchayats.
The question now is how and where to quarantine so many returnees who are waiting to come to Odisha once the lockdown restrictions are lifted.
The Government does not seem to have any answers to the question and confusion prevails over the issue.
The MHA has, however, conceded to the demand of the states including Odisha that the moving persons would be screened and those asymptomatic would be allowed to proceed.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has already taken up the issue with his Gujarat and Maharashtra counterparts Vijay Rupani and Uddhav Thackeray respectively.
As per the discussions, eight buses carrying around 500 migrant workers from Surat have already left for Odisha.
As the Government has relaxed restrictions on movement of migrant workers, nearly 30,000 out of 90,000 workers, who were in various relief camps in Odisha, have started working in different sectors.