Uttrakhand is turning 'ghost villages' into quarantine facilities for migrants

Utttarakhand’s ghost villages will be turned into quarantine facilities for migrants returning in huge numbers in Uttarakhand. As per the latest reports, abandoned houses in Pauri’s district’s ghost villages, known so after they were left abandoned by their residents, will now serve as quarantine facilities for those in need.
Block Development Officer (BDO) of Rikhnikhal block in Pauri district S P Thapliyal said that in view of the huge influx of people coming from outside the state, the utility of the abandoned houses on the peripheries of deserted villages becomes immense.

He added that these houses have been lying vacant for years now due to poor infrastructure, lack of employment, and difficult living conditions, and the same has been cited as the reasons for mass migration of locals from such villages.
Revealing more about this, he added that those dilapidated houses under padlocks, are being planned to use for the said purpose, as panchayat bhawans or school buildings, which were primarily supposed to serve as quarantine facilities for the migrants, are mostly located in the central part of the villages. Therefore, these locations would also pose threat to the locals and make them more vulnerable to infection, he emphasised.
Migrants coming from outside the state will be mandatorily quarantined for 14 days, either at home or at the facilities set up for precautionary measure, as per the orders of the state government. Till now, as many as 576 migrants have been quarantined in those abandoned houses in Pauri District, which is home to the highest number of ghost villages, the BDO added.

A district official also mentioned that a total of 19846 migrants had reached 1049 gram panchayats of Pauri till May 13.

As regarding the quarantine facilities that have been set up in ghost villages, these houses are being sanitized, cleaned up, and then converted to such facilities, an official stated.