Seeing people travel 1000s of kilometres on foot on a cycle with little or no money in scorching heat can rattle even the most indifferent ones. It’s not that the Governments meaning Central Government and the State Governments are not doing anything, but the problem is so complex and of such a scale that foolproof execution is not possible and should not even be expected. Here is an idea for senior Government functionaries to consider.
While Government struggles with buses, trains, cost of travel and reaching out to small towns etc., how about crowd sourcing personal vehicle owners who can do sorties carrying migrant workers. Let’s take the example of Mumbai to Patna, approximately 1830KM. The route will be Mumbai Nasik, Dhule Indore Bhopal Sagar Katni Rewa Prayagraj, Varanasi, Kudra and Patna. Here are possible guidelines / preconditions for such an initiative:
1. It’s is a voluntary help by citizens who have larger vehicles like SUVs, Innovas and are ready to bear the cost of the trip meaning fuel, food for the driver (Can be owner also) and migrants workers
2. While a vehicle can go from source to destination, recommended way would be for a vehicle to go upto 200-300KM and return. For example, in the Mumbai Patna journey, a vehicle starts from Mumbai and goes up to say Nasik or Dhule from where another vehicle takes over up to Indore and so on. This way, a vehicle is back to its home base same day and if needed ready to travel again next day or the day after. It may be required that some vehicles may be ready to travel longer distance, if a change vehicle is not available. For example, if 1000 vehicles leave Mumbai, one would need 1000 in Dhule, Indore and so on.
3. Migrant workers are screened for COVID-19 and assigned a vehicle and point to board. Vehicles can be sourced through Internet. Government can ask for volunteers and decide the criteria – Passport / Aadhar Card / Driving License / No traffic violations / Has PAN card and paid taxes consistently and has no litigation etc. They need to be tested for Corona before embarking on the journey.
4. Government can ask for volunteers thru Internet. People fill in above details. Government has enough data to quickly select those who satisfy its criteria and issue a travel permit to the vehicles. It then assigns the workers who have been screened and ready to travel.
5. Logistics companies such as Rivigo, Gati (@Rivigologistics, @gati) etc can provide ready to use logistics system to plan route for these vehicles and monitor them. Vehicles report to the police station if needed.
6. Corporates can take up the responsibility of suggesting who among their employees will volunteer.
7. To weed out people who may play foul, say by asking money from workers and dropping them off, police can check these vehicles every 100-200 KM. And, Government should make these checks easy by being on the highway and not put such vehicles to inconvenience by asking them to find nearest police station during their journey. If people are volunteering, there will be negligible cases like this. Government can find some incentives like amount spent is eligible for tax break. My strong recommendation is for this class of people not to look for tax benefit in these times.
Think even if 1000-2000 private vehicle owners from Mumbai volunteer and say 3-4 people per vehicle, 3000-6000 migrant workers can travel per day and at no cost to the Government. I am confident, people on the way will help these new Corona warriors by offering packed food and even fuel. I am insisting personal private vehicles who are ready to volunteer. A bus will carry more people but then the bus operator may want to charge for it. The idea is to help Govt infrastructure of railways and buses financially and logistically. These vehicles can also be invoked to bring people back to expedite kick starting the economy.
I have given Mumbai - Patna as an example. NCR, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata … all cities that have migrant workers can go for this.
Personally, I am ready to volunteer as I have an Innova that we use for out of Pune travel and will satisfy above criteria.
