COVID-19: Over 100 labourers housed in Amravati shelter

The district administration here came to the rescue of over 100 migrant labourers and travellers during the COVID-19 lockdown by housing them in a shelter home in Nimhora in Maharashtra's Amravati district.

The state has witnessed a mass exodus of migrant workforce amid the lockdown, with many labourers adopting any means possible to get to their hometowns.

As many as 144 migrant labourers and travellers, who were stranded during the lockdown, were put up at a hostel belonging to the social justice department in Nimhora, district information Officer (DIO) Gajanan Koturvar said.

Arrangements at the shelter were made in keeping with the norms of social distancing, he said, adding that masks, drinking water, soaps, mosquito coils etc, were provided by the authorities.

All meals were prepared in the hostel kitchen and the arrangements are supervised by Amravati Tehsildar and two other officials, he added. "At least 44 labourers in the shelter are from Madhya Pradesh, while remaining are from Telangna, Rajashthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and other states," Kotuvar said. A medical team keeps a tab on labourers' health, and so far, none of them have shown any symptoms of coronavirus, he added.