A video has emerged where scores of people, mostly migrant workers returning to the state, are seen running out of a railway station. The visuals have been captured from outside Bihar’s Buxar railway station. According to reports, the passengers, including women and young children, were trying to escape the mandatory COVID-19 test being conducted at the Bihar railway station, as the state witnesses a sudden influx of returning migrant workers amid the rising coronavirus scourge in the country.
#NewsAlert | Bihar: Visuals emerge from Buxar showing people escaping mandatory Covid screening test.
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) April 17, 2021
Details by Aditya. pic.twitter.com/8J5ZpCkskh
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar recently announced that random COVID testing will be conducted at all the railway stations in the state which has been witnessing a steep rise in coronavirus cases.
According to a report by Times Now, these passengers who were caught rushing out of the station as healthcare workers stop them for the COVID-19 test, are mostly migrant workers. They have been coming back to their native state from cities like Mumbai, Pune and Delhi that have been reporting a surge in COVID cases and also imposed strict restrictions, including night curfew and weekend lockdown.
The return of migrant workers has continued to push Bihar’s Covid-19 graph upwards. Owing to this, the Bihar government, in a high-level meeting on Friday, decided on conducting random COVID-19 tests at railway stations.
Speaking about the incident, an railway official said: “This has become an everyday ritual.”
“When we stopped them from leaving, they started to argue. There were no policemen at the station during the incident. Later, one policewoman came and said she was helpless as she was alone,” said Jai Tiwari, a local civic councillor in Buxar.
