Journalists and activists took to Twitter to criticise the act after the video emerged, along with the severe condemnation of the district administration, which was asked, "Who are you trying to kill, the coronavirus or humans?"
After a viral video on social media earned widespread condemnation regarding the action of Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district officials who sprayed a chemical 'disinfectant solution' on migrant labourers, the central government said that action has been taken against the concerned officials.
"Bareilly District Magistrate has clarified that some employees took an overzealous step due to ignorance. Required action has been taken against those employees," said Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Soon after the microblogging site Twitter was ravaged with condemnations of the Bareilly administration, the District Magistrate himself took to his official handle on the website to address the issue. He said that the team who did this was 'overzealous' as they were just asked to disinfect the buses, assuring that action has been initiated against the concerned officials.
"Under the Chief Minister's Office's supervision, those affected are being treated. The civic body and fire brigade team were asked to sanitise buses... but they did this because they were overzealous. Action has been initiated against officials concerned," the DM, Bareilly, wrote.
Amid the backdrop of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spreading like wildfire across India, the video, which many have termed "mildly disturbing" emerged on Monday morning. A group of migrant labourers who reached Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district was on this day were reportedly doused in a chemical 'disinfectant' solution by the authorities while policemen stood watching and filming the action, a video which went viral on social media on this day showed.
Among the group of labourers included men, women and children, who were asked to keep their eyes shut while the district authorities in protective suits sprayed a solution on them to 'disinfect' them of any potential virus infection.
Journalists and activists took to Twitter to criticise the act after the video emerged, along with the severe condemnation of the district administration, which was asked, "Who are you trying to kill, the coronavirus or humans?"
According to reports, the batch of migrants had just returned to UP over the weekend after special buses were arranged for them to return to their native places. After walking for miles, travelling in overcrowded buses, and braving the risk of COVID-19 infection, the 'chemical bath' still awaited the poor labourers, as fate would have it.
The 21-day nationwide lockdown over coronavirus, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, has turned into a humanitarian crisis with the measure triggering a mass exodus of daily wage workers and labourers, including women and children, who were seen migrating from major cities to their homes in other parts of the country.
As the lockdown put their livelihoods on halt, these workers decided to leave the place of their employment for their native homes, most of them on a journey on foot of hundreds of kilometres. In Delhi, many of these men and women, with their bags on their heads and backs and some having babies clung to their arms, were seen waiting in long queues to board buses at the Anand Vihar Interstate Bus Terminal.
As of 11 PM on Monday, over 1,000 people across India have been reported to have contracted the COVID-19 disease, as new cases were reported in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan on this day. The virus has affected over 7.4 lakh people worldwide. The global death toll has crossed 35,000, according to the COVID-19 statistics centre at the John Hopkins University.COVID-19.
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