E-Paper
Covid-19: With no trains, gypsies, labourers from north India stranded in Bengal towns
There are women and children in the 23-member group that has taken shelter in the playground of Bani Mandir Railway School. One of the women is pregnant and there are some old people as well.
With no trains to take them to their village in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh, a band of banjaras (gypsies) are living in the open in north Bengal’s Siliguri town.
There are women and children in the 23-member group that has taken shelter in the playground of Bani Mandir Railway School. One of the women is pregnant and there are some old people as well.
After spending a few months in the state, selling handicrafts and tribal jewellery to make a living, the banjaras had gone to Panitanki near the Indo-Nepal border when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the lockdown to contain the Covid-19 outbreak. The banjaras rushed to New Jalpaiguri and Siliguri stations on the night of March 24. By then, all trains and inter-state buses had been cancelled.
“As we wandered, some policemen caught us. They told us not to move around,” Vishal Kumar, a youth in the group said.
Hunu Prasad, the oldest man in the group said, “We somehow managed to reach the school and have been living here since then.”
The school ground is around 500 metres from Siliguri station.
The banjaras somehow managed to get food for two days. On Thursday, some local people gave them rice and vegetables. The group is using toilets in the playground.
Sumant Sahay, sub divisional officer of Siliguri, said, “Some NGOs are helping these people. The government is ready to provide help. However it is not possible for us to take them to their village in Uttar Pradesh.”
In a similar incident, around 170 labourers from Bihar’s Bhagalpur are stranded outside the railway station at Katwa in East Burdwan district since movement of trains stopped.
“Acting on the decision of the state government, the state railway police made an attempt to send back these people in trucks but the vehicles were stopped at the Jharkhand border and sent back,” Bikash Dutta, officer-in-charge, Katwa police station said.
There are many women in this group which is now dependent on supplies provided by the state administration. “Please do something to reunite us with our families. We cannot live here forever,” Meena Devi, a labourer said.
No passengers are stranded at any railway stations, including Howrah and Sealdah, under the Eastern Railway (ER) and South Eastern Railway (SER) in West Bengal.
“Till Thursday, around 150 passengers who arrived before lockdown were stranded at the Howrah station premises. But the state government had arranged buses to help them their reach their destinations. They were mostly Guwahati-bound passengers. The RPF was taking care of their food till that time,” Nikhil Chakraborty, spokesperson of ER said.
“No passengers are stranded in any station under the SER in West Bengal,” SER spokesman Sanjay Ghosh said.
Subhanan Chanda, chief public relation officer of the North East Frontier Railway said, “There are no stranded passengers in railway stations because the state transport departments had taken good initiatives and sent all passengers who arrived by trains to their destinations.”
