'Lack' of preparedness to deal with migrant workers during lockdown: Cong leader Shashidhar Reddy

Migrant workers carry their belongings as they walk along a road to return to their villages, during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease, in New Delhi. Credit: Reuters Photo

Senior Congress leader and former vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) M Shashidhar Reddy has accused the Centre of not factoring in the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on daily wage earners and migrant workers before announcing it.

"It clearly exposes a lack of preparedness as the implications of a lockdown and the impact that it will have on daily wage earners and the plight of the migrant workers was not factored in," he said in a statement here on Saturday.

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The purpose of the lockdown was defeated when lakhs of migrant workers and their families gathered in large numbers throwing social distancing to winds, he said.

"There was no advance preparation for facilitating their movement, isolation and quarantine, forcing the states to rush through things, stretching the demand on the already overburdened health workers, police and civil administration, he said.

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