PTI photo.
NEW DELHI: In a move to curb the movement of migrant workers on roads and highways, the Centre on Sunday used the Disaster Management Act to fix responsibility on district magistrates and senior superintendents of police to seal district and state borders while making arrangements for those on the roads to be housed in shelters besides also dissuading such workers from leaving their current place of stay.
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The measure followed concerns that continued movement of lakhs of migrant workers from various cities to the hinterland could lead to a problematic spread of Covid-19 in rural areas and was accompanied with directions to ensure salaries were paid and employment was not terminated during the ongoing national lockdown and the ensuing shuttering of economic activity in large parts of the country.
Responding to questions whether the government was caught unawares by the migrant outflow, Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry, said the entire situation due to the global and national spread of coronavirus was unprecedented in scale and the Centre had done its best to anticipate as well as respond