After Migrants Flee Quarantine Centre, Ganjam Gets Five More OAS Officers

Bhubaneswar: A day after some migrants fled a quarantine centre in Ganjam and created ruckus at another such facility, the Odisha government on Monday deputed five OAS officers to assist the district administration to check the spread of coronavirus and handle the problems arising out of return of natives from other states.

The officers sent on deputation are Kanhu Charan Malik, Sarad Prasad Panda, Sweta Kumar Dash, Ranjit Parida, and Dillip Kumar Mohapatra. They have been directed to report to the district collector.

Though Ganjam is one of the few districts that have managed to check the spread of coronavirus with two positive cases reported so far, various factors may have led to this decision to strengthen the officers’ strength in this politically-sensitive district.

It is one of the districts having very high number of people migrating outside the state, particularly Gujarat, in search of jobs. With the state government in the process of facilitating the return of Odias from other states, Ganjam is likely to witness a huge influx of migrants in days to come. Official sources said around 3 lakh migrants have registered to return to Ganjam. There could be thousands of unregistered migrants who might be on their way back.

Though the state government and district administration claim to be ready to accommodate the returnees in quarantine centres, it will be a daunting task to meet their transport, medical check-up and other necessities.

On Sunday, around 100 migrants, who were accommodated in quarantine centre, left their place of stay complaining over poor supply of food and drinking water.

With Hinjili in the district being the home turf of  Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the incident seems to have put the Ganjam administration in a tight spot.