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Covid-19: Migrant workers gather near Bandra station, demand ride back home
Covid-19 in Mumbai: The Mumbai Police stopped the workers, who were desperate to return home in different parts of the country, from entering the station premises.
Hundreds of people, including scores of migrant labourers stranded in Mumbai due to the nationwide lockdown, gathered outside the Bandra West railway station on Tuesday, demanding the resumption of railway services hours after the central government extended the restrictions till May 3, according to a railway official and a minister in Maharashtra.
The Mumbai Police stopped the workers, who were desperate to return home in different parts of the country, from entering the station premises.
“The labourers were protesting against extension of the lockdown, saying they do not have access to food and other essentials,” a Western Railway official, who was present outside the Bandra station, said.
“The city police tried to convince the workers to move away from the area. The crowd dispersed after a lathi charge,” this official, who did not want to be named, said.
Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of extending restrictions --- a three-week lockdown was first imposed on March 25 --- the government suspended all domestic and international flights, and passenger trains till May 3. These services, according to an earlier order, were banned till the midnight of April 14.
Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray tweeted about the incident. He said migrant workers are desperate to return and many are refusing to eat and stay in camps opened for them.
“The current situation at Bandra Station, now dispersed or even the rioting in Surat is a result of the Union Government not being able to take a call on arranging a way back home for migrant labour. They don’t want food or shelter, they want to go back home.” Thackeray posted, referring to an incident in Gujarat’s Surat where migrant workers resorted to violence last week fearing the extension of lockdown.
“A mutual road map set by the union government will largely help migrant labour to reach home from one state to another safely and efficiently. Time and again this issue has been raised with the centre. The law and order situation in Surat, Gujarat, largely has been seen as a similar situation and the feedback from all migrant labour camps is similar. Many are refusing to eat or stay in. Currently more than 6 lakh people are housed in various shelter camps across Maharashtra,” he tweeted.
After the lockdown was announced in March, the plight of migrant labourers walking hundreds of kilometers to reach their villages hit the headlines. Finally, states opened shelters to house them and feed them during the lockdown.
