MUMBAI : PM’s announcement early Monday morning snapped patience amidst migrant population in Mumbai, where thousands of them gathered at city’s Bandra to protest the lockdown extension. They crammed at the railway station with several demanding to be allowed to return to their native places, now that fresh shuttering has been declared up to 3 May. Eventually, police resorted to lathicharge to disperse the crowd.
When people repeatedly ignored warnings, we resorted to batons, said police. There were also people from nearby slums who mixed with the crowd hoping for food handouts, they added.
The incident raises questions about how such huge crowd managed to get together despite multiple containment zones in the city and also carried serious health implications given that, Mumbai has more than 1500 covid cases accounting for more than 50 percent of Maharashtra’s total 2500.
Union Home Minister Amit Shall called Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, expressing concern over the happening. The administration should stay vigilant else the fight against coronavirus would be long drawn, he said.
Late evening, Thackeray told media the crowd had gathered on being misled that the trains would commence services and they could return home. In a message to the rumour-mongers, Thackeray said “They are poor people, don’t play with their emotions .”
