A group of migrants queued in a screening line were sprayed with disinfectant in south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC).

The incident took place on Friday, near Lajpat Nagar’s Hemu Kalani Secondary School, where the migrants were waiting for their medical screening before boarding the Shramik special trains.

The incident was reported by The Indian Express, when they witnessed a tanker bearing the initials of SDMC outside Lajpat Nagar. One of the workers started spraying disinfectant on the road and then in the direction of the migrants. Later, another worker asked them to turn around and sprayed disinfectant directly on them.

In the video that went viral on social media, migrants can be seen coughing and running away from the hose as it hit their legs.

The civic body issued a statement saying that they apologized to the migrants, stating the incident as a ‘mistake’. Migrants were later provided with food and water, the statement read.

Lajpat Nagar councillor Sunil Sahdev told the Indian Express that it was not done ‘intentionally’.

‘As the school is in a residential colony, residents and representatives demanded that disinfection of the compound be carried out. As per protocol, disinfectant spraying was being done in the evening in and around the school. Due to pressure from the jetting machine, the worker could not manage it for some moments,’ he said as quoted by the agency.

He added that the workers have been asked to be more careful and prevent such kinds of incidents in future.

One of the migrants told the agency that they have been waiting for almost 48 hours to find a seat in the train despite facing all kinds of discrimination.

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