After the lunch hour a group of migrants at the Yamuna Sports Complex here, that has been converted into a shelter home for those with nowhere to go during the lockdown, turned up before an official and showed him their Aadhaar cards in the hope that they will be allowed to leave for their homes. Most, except a few, were turned away.
Mannu, 19, and his friend Satish Kumar were among those who returned disappointed to their designated mattresses in the huge indoor stadium at the complex that is at present housing over 1,000 people, most of them migrant workers.
"I heard some of the others were allowed to go home after they showed their Aadhaar cards. So we thought even we can return home now," said Kumar. They were, however, told by the official that only those with valid address proofs of Delhi will be allowed to leave the complex after thorough verification.
"We have all facilities here. But we want to go back home to our families. We don't have any work here or money," Kumar said.
The duo, residents of Bahraich in UP, had bought a new bicycle to return to their village from the construction site in Haryana where they worked. But they were intercepted by police during their journey and brought to the shelter on April 27.
The Union government had on Wednesday issued fresh directives allowing states to transport in buses stranded students, migrant labourers, tourists and pilgrims to their home states or destinations by strictly following guidelines meant to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country.
Following the new guidelines, the residents of Delhi are being allowed to leave the sports complex. This has caused hope and restlessness among the other migrants staying there to return to their villages, even though many of them were unaware of the guidelines when PTI spoke to them at the venue.
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"At this moment, we have not informed them about the MHA guidelines as we have not received any direction from the concerned authorities yet," said Sohan Lal, Executive Magistrate, Yamuna Sports Complex (Shelter Home).
He said it will take some time for the authorities to formulate directions on how these people who belong to different states can be sent back to their native places.
"We do not want to create panic among people unless things are finalised. We have already sent the data on the number of people living here from the concerned states to the higher authorities and are waiting for their directions. Once we receive it, we will inform them and facilitate their movement from the shelter home," the official said.
He said that however, those who are local residents of Delhi are being sent to their homes specially when contacted by their relatives who then come to take them from here.
Most migrants at the shelter PTI spoke to are sole bread winners of their families and are worried about how their family members back in the village would be making ends meet as there is no source of income during the lockdown. At the sprawling sports complex, almost everyone was waiting to be "released" so that they could go back to their homes.
For 30-year-old Ranno who is four months pregnant, returning home is a necessity as she is worried sick that her two sons will die of hunger if her family doesn't reach their village in Banda, Uttar Pradesh, at the earliest. The last time she spoke to them on the phone over a week ago, they told her they had run out of ration and were scared to step out as the police was detaining people in the streets.
On April 12, Ranno and 10 other members of her family including her husband and three other children were walking towards Anand Vihar in the hope of finding a bus to their village but were accosted by the police and brought in DTC buses to the shelter.
They all worked at a brick-making factory in Loni, Ghaziabad. When the lockdown was announced, their contractor handed them only Rs 1,500 each and left for his hometown.
"It has been at least eight days since I spoke to my two boys in the village. We don't even have money left to recharge our phone. When I spoke to them last, all they said was 'Ration khatam ho gaya hain, magar hum ghar se bahar nahi nikalenge. Police pakad legi hume'," said Ranno.
"Please ask the government to send us home," she requested with folded hands.