Yogi Govt Blaming Migrants Workers for Rise in COVID-19 Raises Eyebrows

Lucknow: The Supreme Court has finally taken suo motu notice of the sorry plight of migrant workers, pointing out lapses on the part of the Centre and state governments, but the Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh continues to attribute the rise in the number of cases to these hapless workers.

Asserting that returning migrant workers were posing a challenge to UP, the Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party government has claimed that it is migrants who have triggered a fresh wave of infections in the state, leading to a sharp in new cases.  

"Seventy five per cent of migrant workers who returned from Maharashtra, 50% who returned from Delhi and 25-30% of migrants who came from other states were “infected” and it remains a challenge for us, but our teams are firmly engaged with strength," the Chief Minister said while addressing a webinar on Sunday, May 24.

Adityanath went on to add that "over 23 lakh migrant workers have been brought from other states in Uttar Pradesh. These include people coming on buses, trains and private vehicles," he added, without providing any data to back up his numbers. 

However, with lakhs of penniless and jobless migrant workers still stranded or walking back home in the sweltering heat, the chief minister's statement has not gone down well. Several social activists, who are working round the clock for migrants, are questioning the Adityanath government on the basis of this claim, pointing out that the surge in case was more a reflection of how the Centre and state government had failed the poor migrants.

'General Testing Low in UP', so Why Blame Migrants?

Amid the surging cases of COVID-19 in Uttar Pradesh, public health experts have been repeatedly warning about the risks of low supplies of coronavirus test kits and general testing kits in the state.

Flaying the government for “dubious data” and blaming migrants for the surge in cases, social activist Sandeep Pandey, a Magsaysay award-winner, told Newsclick: "The state government is anti-labour and works under capitalists. Both the state and Central government tried their level best to ensure that migrants could not reach their state after being rendered jobless. They started a train service to bring these poor jobless workers home only after they were left to die on the streets."

Drilling holes into Adityanath’s claim, Pandey said “if general testing is low, and testing of only migrants is high, then most new cases will be found in migrants”. 

“What is the ground of the CM’s data of infection (in migrants)? From where does this percentage of infection in returned migrants come from?”, he said, asking that if migrants were to be blamed for this, then why was testing low among common people?

Highlighting the "pathetic" condition of quarantine centres in Uttar Pradesh, Pandey, who keeps visiting these shelters to help migrants round the clock, said people or migrants coming from anywhere keep roaming for a week before going to a quarantine centre as the government is not taking this issue seriously. 

"In Sitapur, a group of people came from another state and spent a week with family and after that, the person and "not his family members" went for quarantine on a scooter," said Pandey, adding that the incident showed the level of monitoring being done by the state government.. 

CS Verma, president of public health outfit, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), Uttar Pradesh, said general testing was low while there was already community spread.

"Migrant workers are getting tested, so they are being detected. The number of cases is still rising and will peak if general testing takes place. The spread of the contagious disease is within the community, and the government is testing only migrant workers, which is why they are claiming that migrants are the most infected. The testing ratio is negligible in hotspot areas," he said, adding that it was good that the government was alert in terms of migrants but what about general testing.

Calling for wider rapid testing, Verma told NewsClick: "People are making a beeline for King George's Medical University, Lucknow, for COVID-19 tests but not everyone is getting tested. The government will have to increase the testing rapidly, most importantly because of the way the number of cases is rising," adding that by May-end, India may cross two lakh Covid-19 infected patients and will have to face more challenges. 

Uttar Pradesh is one of the worst-affected states in the country with 14,460 COVID-19 cases and 888 deaths, as of Tuesday morning.

According to the state government, the total positive cases in UP are now 6,497. Of these, 2,668 are active cases. Over 1,650 migrant workers who returned from other states have tested positive for coronavirus while samples of 54,859 migrants have been sent for screening. Over 8.5 lakh migrant workers have been put under surveillance.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has also raised questions about chief minister Adityanath’s recent statement wherein he did not share detailed data of returning migrants who are infected by coronavirus.

“If there is truth in the statement of the Chief Minister, the government should share testing, infection data with the public with full transparency,” she tweeted.

..और यदि ऐसा है तो इतने कम टेस्ट क्यों हो रहे हैं?

या ये आँकड़े उप्र सरकार के अन्य आँकड़ों की तरह ही अप्रमाणित और गैर ज़िम्मेदार हैं ?

अगर मुख्यमंत्री जी के बयान में सच्चाई है तो सरकार पूरी पारदर्शिता के साथ टेस्टिंग, संक्रमण के डेटा और अन्य तैयारियों को जनता से साझा करे 3/4

— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) May 25, 2020

"Does CM mean that more than 10 lakh people in UP are infected with corona? But as per his government’s data, there are 6,228 cases,” In her next tweet she wrote and said.