Hundreds of migrants on foot stopped at Delhi-Ghaziabad border, taken to shelter homes
Hundreds of migrant workers walked to Ghazipur in Delhi near the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border in the hope of being able to cross over into Uttar Pradesh, and further
Hundreds of migrant workers walked to Ghazipur in Delhi near the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border in the hope of being able to cross over into Uttar Pradesh, and further proceed towards their hometowns on Sunday morning. This led to a massive build-up at the Delhi-UP Gate border — which was sealed by authorities two weeks ago— on Delhi-Meerut Expressway near Indirapuram, with police stopping and taking them to shelter homes.
The Yogi Adityanath government had asked police and administrative officials to ensure that no migrant worker travelled on foot or in vehicles, after 24 people were killed in UP’s Auraiya district when the truck they were travelling on met with an accident on Saturday morning . Sixteen people on the truck had boarded from an area under the jurisdiction of Indirapuram police station in Ghaziabad.
On Sunday, most of the migrants trying to cross over were people who had been working in Delhi and were stranded there after the lockdown was announced. Almost all of them HT spoke to said that they now desperately wanted to get back to their hometowns.
Ghaziabad police, however, said that they could not let migrants enter as they were on foot. Only those having valid train tickets will be allowed to enter.
“We have not allowed them to walk on the highway and only those having valid train tickets will be allowed entry. We have also not allowed any vehicles carrying migrant workers into Ghaziabad. Any vehicle ferrying migrants is being stopped and workers are made to de-board. Such vehicles ,like trucks, will also face legal action,” said Anshu Jain, circle officer (Indirapuram).
The migrants complained that they couldn’t make train reservations since many of them didn’t know how to do online booking.
“We were made to sit at the border and not allowed to enter Ghaziabad, from where we hoped to get on to a bus or a train to our hometowns in Bihar. We don’t have any work in Delhi and we need to go home. We are not able to book train tickets online as many of us either don’t know how to do it or don’t have mobile phones to do it,” said Iftekhar, a migrant worker from Purnia in Bihar, who worked at Azad Market in Sadar Bazar area of Delhi.
“There were people who even asked for Rs 3,000 to get our train tickets booked. We do not have so much money. So we decided to come to Ghaziabad and are now stranded at the border,” he added.
Like Iftekhar, another man Tauseef , said he had been stuck ever since his small factory in Delhi’s Sadar Bazar, which made curtain rings, was shut down.
“My factory has shut down and the only way we can survive is by going home. But we are now stuck at the border while hundreds of migrant workers like us have already moved to UP and are headed to their home towns. When we arrived here on Saturday afternoon by a bus, which was headed to Noida, the cops stopped the bus and made us de-board,” said Tauseef, who is native of Arariya in Bihar.
“There were hundreds of migrant workers like us at the UP border, but walking alongside the (Hindon) canal area. We know that buses and trains are going from Ghaziabad but we are stranded here and have no means to book online tickets. We were stopped at the border, but food was provided to us,” he added.
Later in the day, as hundreds of workers started pouring in towards the border, authorities took them to different shelter homes in Ghaziabad, from where their travel arrangements are being made.
“The workers on the Delhi side were not allowed to enter and they were taken away by Delhi Police. Those on our side and those found walking on roads in Ghaziabad were taken to temporary shelter homes,” said Manish Mishra, superintendent of police (city).
The UP government has given permission for the operation of Shramik Special trains from Ghaziabad and Noida and trains have been running from these stations since May 15.
The Uttar Pradesh government officials on Sunday said that 522 trains have arrived from other states while another 87 will arrive soon.
“Within next 2-3 days when these trains arrive, about 16.5 lakh migrant workers will arrive back home in UP. On Saturday, about 1.5 lakh workers arrived in UP,” said Awanish Awasthi, UP’s additional chief secretary (home).
“We have also requested the Railways to allow short distance travel of about 200-300km, so that workers can travel between Ghaziabad and Bareilly and Ghaziabad and Mordabad. We have asked the Railways for permission of running Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) or EMU trains to ferry workers,” he added.
The administration officials on Sunday night said in a statement that there is a proposal of running three trains, which will leave Ghaziabad everyday for cities of Gorakhpur (via Lucknow, Barabanki, Gonda, Basti and Khlilabad), Varanasi (via Lucknow, Fatehpur and Prayagraj) and Azamgarh (via Lucknow, Barabanki, Faizabad, Akbarpur, Shahganj and Sarai Mir).
The train services are free of cost for migrant workers, but they have to register online and wait for an SMS which is sent by the state government that serves as their ticket.
Apart from the trains, UP roadways is also plying buses to different districts of the state. The UP Roadways till Saturday evening had sent about 600 buses to different areas from Morta in Ghaziabad, with an average seating capacity of 35 passengers.
The bus services have been operational for migrant workers for past one week and will continue.
