Migrants’ walk of pain meets document hurdle at Gujarat-Maharashtra border
Amid the lockdown, the Maharashtra-Gujarat border check-post at Talasari in Maharashtra’s Palghar district is bustling with cars, trucks and buses, with motorists
Amid the lockdown, the Maharashtra-Gujarat border check-post at Talasari in Maharashtra’s Palghar district is bustling with cars, trucks and buses, with motorists running from one counter to the other with necessary documents to cross over to the neighbouring state. Lost among the sea of vehicles are the labourers – most of whom have walked all night to avoid the heat or those who have hitch-hiked their way to the border with the help of truck and bus drivers. Their trek comes to a halt, but the struggle continues, as the police claim a majority of them carry medical certificates, but not a police permission letter, forcing some to wait for as long as four days to cross the border.
“We requested truck drivers to drop us till wherever they could. After 12 hours and changing two trucks, one driver dropped us at the Talasari checkpost. We’ve been sitting in this scorching heat since 10am because we can’t afford a vehicle to cross the border,” says Raju Gajjar, a labourer from Dhandhuka city of Gujarat, who has been working in Thane for the past few years.
The police document required to cross the border states those interested in crossing borders should share details of a vehicle and the driver of the vehicle only “in case” they choose such a mode of transport. Labourers, however, allege the police don’t accept their forms without a vehicle and at least 35-40 people have been waiting at the Maharashtra side for the past two days.
The Thane police commissionerate, however, says there’s no rule that demands labourers to travel by a vehicle only. “The guidelines prescribed by the Central government clearly state that migrants who want to cross the state borders without vehicles should be facilitated by the state concerned, who should be making arrangements of shelter and food for free. We are following the written guidelines,” said Balasaheb B Patil, deputy commissioner of police, Thane.
“We have no work in the city anymore so some of us from the same village decided to go back home together. Neither the local Thane police nor the police at the checkpost are helping us,” says Gajjar, who is accompanied by 13 people, including two kids.
In some cases, the workers pool in money to hire a large van or a mini bus. However, such an exercise costs them anywhere between ₹35,000-₹40,000, says one of the labourers. “If we could afford that kind of money, we’d still live in the city. The reason we all want to go back home is because we have no money for food and survival,” says Gajjar.
A little away is another group of 15-odd labourers, who work in Mumbai and Thane as help or daily wage workers. Their problem is the same. “The queue to get a seat in any of the government buses is long and hiring a private vehicle is out of question. As we only need to cross one state border, we decided to walk, but the border police is not helping us,” says Manju Kumbhar, who hails from Patan, Gujarat. “We tried approaching the police station, but they ask for details of the vehicle and driver. We told them we will hitch-hike, to which they refuse to accept our application forms,” says Jignesh Dholakia, another youth stuck on the border on his way to Ahmedabad. “We are trying to cross just one state border. We can’t imagine how much trouble others who are travelling to Rajasthan or Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are facing.”
Two Chennai residents, who work as drivers in Rajasthan, too, had to wait for a while. “After waiting in queue for a day at a doctor’s clinic, we had to wait for four days to get the seal of approval from the local police station. The queues are never ending at every police station,” says PU Sivanandakumar, one of the drivers who was crossing borders from Bhilad in Valsad (Gujarat) to Talasari. “We still have a long way to go and hope the process is smooth at the other border.”
Amid the chaos, there’s some respite from the Talasari tehsildar’s office, whose staff members provide food and water to the stranded. “We find at least 50-70 people waiting, some for almost a week, while others have gone back to Mumbai and Thane. When the state borders first opened, the labourers would be stuck and waiting here in thousands, but the number has reduced over days,” said an officer from the Talasari tehsildar’s office.
