As the Uddhav government plans another lockdown to curb rising Covid cases, the migrant workers – who flocked to the cities like Mumbai, Pune and Nashik after the situation normalised and travel restriction was lifted – are leaving the state in large numbers and this has created havoc.
The inefficient Uddhav administration could not control the worsening situation and this has led to around 60,000 cases per day in the state. Now, in order to hide his failure of ramping up medical infrastructure, the Uddhav government is mulling over another full lockdown for 15 days. The news of another lockdown has led to panic among the migrant workers who want to reach their villages before the Maharashtra government packs them in their rented homes.
“There are chances of lockdown there, and that is why we are going back to our home. Businesses are also suffering losses there as everything is closing down. We will come back once the situation is better,” said Sanjay Yadav, who works in Maharashtra’s Palghar and is heading for his home in Azamgarh.
Surendra Yadav, an auto driver from Jharkhand, is not optimistic about coming back to the city. “Now again the Covid-19 cases are rapidly increasing in Mumbai. Many people are returning to their homes from Mumbai. I didn’t know if I’ll ever return,” he said.
Last year, the mismanagement of lockdown led to the Bandra fiasco, and this time, too, the Uddhav government is managing things very inefficiently. Despite the guideline from the Union government to refrain from a complete lockdown, the Uddhav government is mulling over the idea, and the news of this is leading to panic among the migrant workers.
The Uddhav government has already destroyed the economy of the state. Previously many business associations, including restaurant owners, criticised the government’s decision of locking down the state. Anurag Katriar, President of the National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI) took to Twitter to share an emotional plea to the Uddhav Thackeray government, asking them to close the entire F&B sector, once and for good, after the night curfew and weekend ban came into effect.
“Dear Maharashtra Govt, Please shut down the F&B biz in the state completely! This slow death is more excruciating. First, u shut us for dinner, which contributes 75% of our revenue. Now u r shutting us down on weekends which contributes 60% of our weekly business.”
The initial lockdown was imposed to buy time to ramp up medical infrastructure and most of the states like Odisha, UP and Bihar built hospitals and augmented the capacity. Maharashtra, on the other hand, did not take the necessary steps to ramp up the medical infrastructure under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray.
The unilateral and unplanned curfew imposed by the Uddhav government is surely expected to sound the death knell for the industry. When the cases had been brought to control a few months back, the Maharashtra government started demonstrating a lax attitude, which has caused the current perilous situation.
The Uddhav government’s inefficiency is causing immense damage to the economy of Maharashtra (thus of the country given the fact Mumbai is financial capital) as well as to poor migrant workers. One incompetent government is washing out the entire effort of the country to curb the Coronavirus disease in the last year.