The Centre and state governments are struggling to restart at least some industrial activity as it becomes apparent that the 21-day nationwide lockdown imposed to check the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) could be extended beyond April 14, and stocks of essential commodities need replenishing across the country. State governments, particularly those like Delhi that witnessed an exodus of migrant workers after the lockdown was announced, say there are not enough labourers in the city to work in factories and warehouses.
The SOP said the train schedule, protocols for entry and movement of passengers, services to be provided in coaches, and arrangements with states and UTs for booking of tickets shall be publicised by the MOR.
Earlier this month, 75 of the 120 vaccination centres across Mumbai, including a jumbo COVID-19 facility in business district BKC, had suspended inoculation due to a shortage of doses.
While 287 trains have already reached their destinations, 79 trains are in transit, officials said. Out of these 287 trains, 127 terminated in Uttar Pradesh, 87 in Bihar, 24 in Madhya Pradesh, 20 in Odisha, 16 in Jharkhand, four in Rajasthan, three in Maharashtra, two each in Telangana and West Bengal, and one each in Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, the officials said.
'Last time we waited for the situation to get better but ultimately had to go back home anyway'
'We are going to have a recession this year, maybe next year too...'
After five weeks of lockdown, migrant workers' patience ran out and so did the money, which forced them to leave Mumbai on bicycles.
Justices Arif S Doctor and Somasekhar Sundaresan held there was nothing in the MCC that would interfere with the Board's ongoing activities.
As voting begins in Bihar in the first phase of assembly elections on Wednesday, the fate of political leaders depends on how the electorate perceives they can solve ground-level issues from reverse migration to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.
Far from his native Uzbekistan, labour migrant Rustam Mustafakulov has found a second home in the World Cup host city of St Petersburg
MNS, which launched its campaign against north Indian migrants last month, had issued advertisements in local newspapers asking unemployed Marathi youth to enroll with the party, which would provide them jobs in industrial units in Nashik.
Teams focused on World Cup, not politics, had easier passage to last 16, says Arsene Wenger
'Oh god, these workers will now spread the virus! Their only concern was to think about themselves.' 'The middle class was only concerned with flattening the curve of coronavirus and they were not bothered about how these workers live in one room with 10 people or 20 people.'
Nothing is going to dramatically open up on May 3. There will be too many ifs and buts and terms and conditions and guidelines in leading one's life in various zones, reveals Sheela Bhatt.
Pintu Pawar's dead body was found on Monday at Dhanora in Beed district, 200 km from his village, said assistant inspector Dnyneshwar Kuklare of Ambhora police station. Pawar, who worked as sugarcane cutter in cane fields, was native of Dhopte Pondul village. He was visiting his parents at his sister's house in Pune when lockdown was imposed, and got stuck there.
'If the BJP doesn't want to accept the will of the people, then we will show them what a majority means.'
Indefinite curfew was clamped in three police station areas of this industrial town on Friday after a protest by migrant labourers against the failure of the police to register cases of robbery turned violent.
A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao refused to entertain an application seeking a direction to the Centre to ask all district magistrates to identify stranded migrant workers and provide shelter, food to them before ensuring their free transportation to native places in view of the recent incident at Aurangabad in which 16 workers were mowed down by a goods train.
The country's textile industry is concentrated in a few pockets of Gujarat and Maharashtra in the west and Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in the south.
While majority of the state governments and union territory administrations have made at least seven days' quarantine compulsory for anyone arriving in their jurisdiction, a few of them have opted for home quarantine for those reaching their administrative limits. According to an official estimate, as on May 26, a total of 22.81 lakh people were in quarantine facilities arranged by different states and union territories -- almost double from 12 days ago (May 14) when the people put under quarantine were 11.95 lakh, a government official told PTI.
'Many are coming hungry and thirsty.' 'Some told us they were stopped from filling water at roadside village handpumps because villagers told them 'tum Carona ho'.'
Masala Republic is one of the tackiest films made in recent times.
'Children need milk. If there is no money, how can one buy it'
Enabling labour to become more globally mobile can produce higher remittances with powerful 'brain gain' dividends.
The Odisha government told the assembly over 40,000 workers migrated from the state last year, with the highest number -- 26,151 -- from Balangir.
The Bihar government plans to provide insurance cover to migrant workers from the state, who are scattered all across the country to earn livelihood.
PTI photographer Atul Yadav recounts his meeting with Rampukar Pandit on a Delhi roadside and the powerful image that captured the tragedy of migrants across India.
As the world awaits the end of the global pandemic, rural Bengal might be witnessing a recession unfolding in bits and pieces. With factories and tea gardens closing down, agricultural income falling and storm Aila ravaging a large part of deltaic West Bengal in 2010, migration gradually became a norm.
At a time when finding out who is paying for labourers' train tickets is a task for Sherlock Holmes, Hemant Soren's Jharkhand government has flown in stranded workers from Ladakh, and is probably the only state that has tried to give 'migrant workers' a modicum of respect, observes Debashish Chatterjee.
8,000 asylum-seekers reach Germany in a single day amid deepening refugee crisis
The North East Students Organisation (NESO), the apex student body of the region, has called a 12-hour bandh in all states of the region, except Assam, on Thursday to protest against influx of migrant labourers and others into the region from other states.
Indicating a faster-than-expected recovery, remittances from migrant labourers and the number of first-time EPFO registrations have crossed the pre-lockdown levels in September, according to a report. Another silver lining is the massive 60 per cent increase in the number of Jan Dhan accounts to over 41 crore and the balances in them, which also indicate the fall in crimes during the lockdown months, SBI Research said in a report on Tuesday. After a significant reduction in remittances due to the lockdown in April, it improved in June and July, and the numbers in September have crossed the pre-pandemic level in February.
20 Chinese labourers were injured after clashing with the police in Siberia over identity cards.
During the last three days, more than 2 lakh persons have been transported per day. In days to come, it is expected to be scaled up to 3 lakh passengers per day, the Railways said.
The toddler, son of a migrant labourer-couple having no recent travel history, died in the evening at a government hospital in Jamnagar.
The AIADMK is convinced that the BJP will remain an electoral burden for a long time to come, beginning the Lok Sabha polls next year, reveals N Sathiya Moorthy.
The labourers said there was no point in staying back in Gujarat without any income.
Medical help did not reach Singh until an hour and a half later. He was airlifted to a hospital in Rome but died on Wednesday.
Kashmir zone inspector general of police Vijay Kumar also urged the protesters to be patient and 'not get carried away by political parties.'
Italian police have arrested the owner of the agriculture company who dumped a 31-year-old Indian worker on the road without medical assistance after his arm was severed by heavy farm machinery, causing his death, a tragic incident that shocked the country and its leadership.