The Maha Vikas Aghadi Government in Maharashtra ha decided to allow migrants to return to their native states without them being required to produce medical certificates prior to their travel. Rajesh Tope, the Maharashtra Health Minister announced that going forward the state administration will only conduct a thermal screening of the migrants before they commence their journey. The inevitable consequence of such a move is that there is a great possibility that Coronavirus patients with minor symptoms may carry the virus with them to their native places.
We have decided that migrant labours who want to go to their native places need not procure medical certificates from now onward. Only thermal checking will be done. This decision taken to avoid big queues outside doctors' clinics: Rajesh Tope, Maharashtra Health Minister pic.twitter.com/N1AgIFy2fa
— ANI (@ANI) May 7, 2020
The decision was apparently taken to reduce queues outside the clinics of doctors. Maharashtra is by far the most affected state by the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic. As of the time of writing this report, the state had a total of 16758 Coronavirus cases with 3094 recoveries. 651 people have died in Maharashtra due to the virus.
Mismanagement of Coronavirus crisis in Maharashtra
A shocking incident of a Mumbai hospital related to mismanagement of dead bodies of Wuhan coronavirus deceased patients has come to the notice of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation(BMC). Reportedly, the dead bodies of coronavirus patients were kept next to the patients under treatment in a Hospital of Mumbai in the Sion area. Earlier, a similar incident was reported from the Cooper hospital where a patient was allegedly left unattended and had to spend the night with two corpses around him.
Management of Migrant Situation by Maharashtra Government
The migrant workers in Maharashtra had to shell out Rs 150-200 to get the medical certificate requisite for their travel to their native states, adding to their already dire financial woes due to the more than a month-long coronavirus lockdown. Maharashtra was one of the three states to have charged migrants for their travel back to their own state.