Nearly 450 persons in Vijayawada stranded due to the lockdown have been accommodated in two schools converted to shelter facilities by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC). Stranded persons, including migrant workers and homeless persons, were identified and shifted to the SRMC High School in Krishnalanka, and PSM Girls’ High School in Vijayawada on Friday.
Special Officer Ravi Chand, who is in charge of the shelter facility in PSM school, said that the stranded persons have been provided with masks, sanitisers and blankets, while a non-profit institution is providing food daily. “Around 12 people who had symptoms like fever, cough and cold, have been shifted to a hospital and are under observation. The rest of the people staying in the school have been advised to maintain a safe distance from each other,” Ravi Chand said.
He said that around 200 more people have been accommodated at the SRMC school. Many of them are migrant workers from other states like Bihar, Chattisgarh, Karnataka, and northern parts of Andhra like Srikakulam. “We’ve been advised to keep them until April 14. The facility will continue if the lockdown is extended,” he said.
Health camps were also conducted for the residents at the shelters on Saturday.
Similar facilities have been arranged for the various shelters for urban homeless established under the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) in the city as well, Ravi Chand said.
Some of these shelters, which are managed by different NGOs, have been unable to accommodate new entrants in spite of beds being available, for the protection of those who are already present. Sai Kumar, who works at Guide Foundation for Development which manages the shelter at Rani Gari Thota, said that although the shelter has 30 beds, currently 11 people are living there. “Since the day of the Janata curfew itself (March 22), we have stopped entry and exit of people. After public transport was suspended, some of them who are from other towns couldn't even go back so they stayed here. We are not taking in new people since there are elderly people staying in here already who could be put at risk,” Sai Kumar said, adding that since the lockdown began, meals are also being provided at the shelter.
Hundreds of Andhra natives have been struggling to travel across state and district borders, stranded after the sudden announcement of nationwide lockdown. Around 1,300 people working in coastal Karnataka tried entering Andhra’s Chittoor district from Kolar district in Karnataka on Friday. The workers have now been sent to a quarantine facility in Kolar. More than 3,500 people working in red chilly fields in Guntur district were also stranded in Prakasam district, as district borders are also under lockdown. They were escorted back to Guntur after waiting for nearly 12 hours.