Workers from West Bengal depart Pune to more challenges at home

On Friday, two trains were sent from Pune railway station to West Bengal

The wait for migrant workers from West Bengal ended on Friday after two Shramik special trains left for Kolkata from the Pune railway station.

A group of stranded migrants from West Bengal boarded a Shramik train for Kolkata on Friday. The workers have gone back to build homes destroyed by cyclone Amphan. (Pratham Gokhale/HT Photo)

Workers en route Kolkata were temporarily relieved, however, more challenges await them back home. The fury of cyclone Amphan has destroyed houses of some of the construction workers, after reaching Kolkata they have no option but to build a new house.

Manoj Jhawar, Pune railway division spokesperson said, “On Friday, two trains were sent from Pune railway station to West Bengal. First train was scheduled to go to Howrah at 4pm and the other was scheduled for Malda at 10 pm. We make sure that social distancing is maintained and temperatures of passengers are checked while boarding.”

Alongside workers from Kolkata, there were several stranded migrants outside the station premise still waiting in the hope to get the train to go to their native places. The migrants from various states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand are staying in PMC’s parking lot near the railway station.

Jhulan, a migrant from Bihar said, “After seeing stranded people from West Bengal depart by train, we are now even more hopeful and relieved. We are ready to wait until our turn comes without worrying over it. But the only concern is, the place where we are staying lacks cleanliness and no one from administration pays attention to clean the surroundings even once in a day.”

Another stranded migrant from Bihar who refused to disclose his name said, “We might catch other infections than Covid-19 due to the negligence of the administration to clean this place.”

Naval Kishore Ram, Pune district collector said, “Our officials are working day and night to collect the data, send it to railways and accordingly plan their journey in order to send the migrants back home. We will send all those who are willing to go back to their states and arrangements are been made. Will look at the issue of cleanliness outside the railway station and provide better facilities from our side to the passengers.”