MAHARASHTRA is the state in the country that has so far been most severely affected by Covid-19, both in terms of the number of cases and the deaths resulting from it. Mumbai and Pune cities have been the worst affected. There have been cases reported in 23 of the 36 districts.
Comrades of the CPI(M) and those of all mass fronts – CITU, AIKS, AIAWU, DYFI, SFI, AIDWA – in several districts have been in the forefront of relief work for the migrants and the poor. The first part of this report covers Mumbai, Palghar and Thane districts. The second part will cover some of the other districts.

MUMBAI CITY  
Comrades of the CPI(M), CITU and DYFI in Mumbai did their small bit to alleviate the sufferings of migrant workers and the poor during the Corona lockdown.

The working people in Mumbai, especially the migrant contract workers primarily employed in the unorganised sector, faced unprecedented difficulties in their struggle to survive after partial and complete lockdowns were announced by the state and central governments respectively.

These migrant workers from all over the country were living hand to mouth by earning daily wages. They were neither covered by PDS nor had any pucca roof over their head. With the sudden and thoughtless announcement of total lockdown in the whole country by the prime minister and all activities like industry, commerce, trade and transportation coming to a standstill, these migrant workers were left without any avenue to earn their daily wages and had to fight a grim battle against hunger to survive.

In the first few days after the lockdown announcement, when no government machinery seemed to work to provide lakhs of such workers any relief in terms of cooked food or food grains, many of them tried to reach their native place by either venturing to walk on foot hundreds of kilometres or by using illegal transportation means, endangering not only themselves but also the whole community with possible further spread of Covid-19. In Mumbai, the government and municipal set up is lax and very inefficient. Large majority of government (central and state) schemes are yet to become operational. Non ration card holders are yet to be supplied food grains.

Party comrades in Mumbai not only dissuaded these migrant workers from fleeing but also provided them with much needed relief of either cooked food packets or food grain kits in the initial days. Teams of CITU and DYFI activists worked continuously for the last 12 days under the guidance of responsible comrades of Mumbai to either provide relief themselves or get the relief provided by the government machinery to these distressed workers. The CITU has also intervened in making the government’s labour department to provide relief. It has also made construction project executors to provide relief. Thousands of workers have benefited.

CITU Bhandup centre and Mumbai Shramik Sangh activists under the leadership of Vivek Monteiro and Akash Bagul distributed hundreds of food packets on daily basis in Bhandup and Kanjur Marg areas. They were ably assisted by workers of Ceat Tyres and Party comrades of area based branches of Kaju Tekadi, Shivaji Nagar, Gaondevi and Sonapur.

CITU Andheri centre and Janwadi Hawkers Sabha activists under the leadership of K Narayanan and Ravi Madane, distributed over 4000 food packets on daily basis in Bandra, Khar, Santacruz, Vile Parle and Andheri areas. They were ably assisted by activists of JHS, who voluntarily donated raw materials for preparing cooked food packets and Mehbub Patel, Rashida Sheikh and others. Recognising the importance of their work, officials of the municipal corporation provided them vehicles to transport relief material to different areas. Mustaq Mistry, under Sreedharan's guidance, is distributing 600 food packets provided daily in Malvani colony. Rajendra Jadhav has provided food packets daily to the distressed in Borivili.

In the western suburbs, DYFI teams in Goregaon, led by Pradeep Salvi, in Jogeshwari led by Sanjiv Shamantul, and CITU-DYFI teams in Marol led by  Chandrakant Bhojgar, Kamal Rawat and Ruhul Amin, and in Bhayandar led by Kishore Samant, performed the sterling work of providing consistent relief to distressed migrant workers by distributing thousands of relief packets. Sanjiv Shamantul and K Narayanan were interviewed by local TV channels, which commended the work of their teams.

Moin Ansar, Sadiq Basha and other Mira Road comrades have managed to provide grocery kits to over 1000 families and food packets to 500 daily through agencies and local municipal setup. In Vasai, Nalasopara and Virar, K K Prakasan, Apreet, Mukesh Sharma, Gulab and Rahul Gore are providing relief to hundreds of workers. In Nalasopara, they distributed two weeks ration to around 500 families, ie, more than 3000 people.

In eastern suburbs, DYFI-CITU team in Powai led by K S Raghuprasad, Mahendra Ughade and Mahesh Nair and Azmat Sheikh and other comrades from Powai distributed food kits, face masks, sanitisers etc to distressed people and employees on essential duties in Powai, Vikhroli, Ghatkopar and Kurla areas.

In central eastern and central suburbs, CITU-DYFI teams in Mankhurd led by Sangita Kamble, an anganwadi union leader and in Wadala led by Ashok Pawar, successfully distributed hundreds of relief packets and kits to migrant workers for over a week. In Mumbai city, Armaity Irani has successfully intervened to provide relief to more than 1000 people. Paresh Solanki has kept the state Party office open. In New Mumbai also, relief was given to many.

Comrades from West Bengal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu provided the details of distressed migrant workers from these states constantly to comrades in Mumbai. The numerous requests from West Bengal were satisfactorily attended to.

The important work of communicating with various ministries and liasoning with various government officials and co-ordinating with activists to procure government relief, was performed by CPI(M) Central Committee member Mahendra Singh, state committee members Vivek Monteiro, Shailendra Kamble, Armaity Irani and Preethy Sekhar, and S K Rege, Mumbai committee secretary.

DISTRICT PALGHAR
The outbreak of coronavirus is comparatively less in the tribal areas of Palghar district. But the after-effects of the lockdown are terrible. Thousands of company workers, construction workers, agricultural workers, domestic workers have lost their jobs. The CPI(M), along with the volunteers of AIKS, CITU, DYFI and AIDWA have been trying hard to reach out to every remote village and pada and helping them with food, grocery and similar essentials.

On Martyrs’ Day, March 23, a small meeting of leading CPI(M) district activists was held at Talasari to pay homage to Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. This was a day before the nationwide lockdown was announced. Here decisions were taken about how to help people in distress. It was attended by CPI(M) Central Committee member Ashok Dhawale, state secretariat members Kisan Gujar and Barkya Mangat, CPI(M) MLA Vinod Nikole, Talasari panchayat samiti chairperson Nandu Hadal, Party group leader in the Palghar zilla parishad Ramu Pagi, and others.   

TEHSIL TALASARI
• In Talasari town, where the CPI(M) has its own municipal panchayat chairperson Smita Valvi and also chairperson of the Talasari panchayat samiti Nandu Hadal, over 1000 migrant workers going to Gujarat and Rajasthan were given food. Biscuits and drinking water was also distributed to them for their journey ahead. Talasari is located on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Express Highway.
• Uplat ZP members, sarpanch and gram panchayat members (all of CPI-M) collected and distributed 5 kg rice, 2 kg tur daal, 1 kg cooking oil, 1 kg salt per family to more than 100 families. Cooked food is also served by our activists to all the poor migrants passing by who had to walk days and nights to reach their destination. 500 kg vegetables, 500 kg chillies, 500 kg tomatoes were also distributed to the poor.
• In Dongari, 200 kits including hand sanitisers, tissue papers and masks were distributed among poor families free of cost. All gram panchayat members have donated themselves and also collected rice and tur daal. The distribution of it is still on. In many other villages of Talasari tehsil, the Party is conducting similar work.

TEHSIL DAHANU
• In Dahanu tehsil, the CPI(M) MLA Vinod Nikole, along with the Party’s local leaders Chandrakant Ghorkhana, Dhanesh Akre and others, are moving from village to village to distribute the free grains on behalf of the government to the people. This grains distribution campaign is continuing every day.   
• Cooked food was served to the needy for two days to all migrants who were stuck at Mumbai-Ahmedabad National Highway No NH-48 near Dahanu.
• In Dahanu, on the eve of the lockdown, CPI(M) activists arranged food and transport to many migrant workers who were left in the lurch by their employers. They were safely brought back to their places around Boisar.
• Many construction workers including women and even children from Palghar, Boisar and nearby villages had to walk down the railway track the whole night as no transport was available. Our Party activists, with the help of a local NGO, made arrangements for their food and rest at Gholwad station. Many construction workers who were stuck due to the lockdown in Kainad area were given food, water etc. All were rescued and sent back safely to their villages. Our Party comrades used their private vehicles, after consent by the police to drop these workers.
• Grocery items were collected and distributed to the needy in Vaki Musalpada of Dahanu tehsil, including potatoes, dry fish and 15 sacks of dry chillies donated by grocery merchant Manish Gosavi.
• In Boisar town of Palghar tehsil, DYFI comrades are distributing food to the staff, patients and relatives at the government hospital and also to the homeless in or around Boisar town constantly for the last 12 days. They have been collecting food packets from our supporters’ homes. They have also distributed hand sanitisers to needy people.

Similar relief work is going on in other tehsils like Jawhar, Vikramgad, Wada, Palghar and in Shahapur in Thane district, to reach out to and help several remote households, despite the limitations due to the lockdown.

DISTRICT THANE
For public awareness about Covid-19, hand wash counters were set up at three different locations. Banners about Covid-19 awareness were placed at Ambernath and Ulhasnagar. 1000 sanitiser bottles were distributed free.

1800 food item kits with vegetables for one week were distributed in slum areas, and also to widows, handicapped, old people and economically weaker sections of the society. Vegetables for 1800 families were given by vegetable merchant Kiran Rai.

CPI(M) Party members and other kind hearted people helped in this initiative. About Rs 93,000 was received through donations. More than Rs 3,50,000 was the total expense for this initiative. Now the Party has started serving cooked food with the help of Amritbela ashram for more than 250 people daily.

All this is being done under the leadership of CPI(M) Thane urban taluka committee, with taluka secretary P K Lali, Ulhasnagar unit secretary P V Balan, DYFI Ulhasnagar city president Jyoti Tayde, secretary Rajesh Jadhav,  DYFI taluka committee member Ravi Gavai and others.