Migrants, returning to their homes in Uttar Pradesh, were sprayed with disinfecting chemical by a team on sanitising duty at the Bareilly bus stand. According to news agency IANS, the incident took place on Sunday. According to reports, the migrants had walked down from Noida and Delhi and were waiting for buses and food.
They were sitting together at the bus adda when some men in protective suits came and began spraying water on them. The video of the incident shows the group, including women and children, sitting on the road while a man can be heard asking them to close their and their children's eyes. (Apni ankhen band kar lo. Bacchon ki ankhen band kar lo).
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra this afternoon condemned the action in a tweet. "I appeal to the government in UP... all of us are fighting together against this crisis (coronavirus). Please don't indulge into such inhuman actions. The labourers have already suffered a lot. Don't spray chemicals on them. This won't protect them... rather it would harm their health," she wrote in Hindi, along with the clip.
The sanitizing team sprayed the group with a diluted mixture of sodium hypochlorite, IANS reported quoting sources. Sodium Hypochlorite is the main ingredient in laundry bleach. It is used extensively as a bleaching agent in the textile, detergents, and paper and pulp industries. It is also used as a disinfectant.
According to IANS, none of the officials in Bareilly and Lucknow, were ready to comment on the incident.
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