Chaos prevailed in many parts of Gujarat even as the initiative started for the safe passage of hundreds of thousands of non-Gujarati migrant labourers who have been stranded in various cities of the State ever since the lockdown to fight COVID-19 began.
Several incidents of clashes between migrants and police were reported from inter-State checkposts due to lack of proper arrangements on the part of the administration after the Ministry of Home Affairs’ guidelines for their movement came into force.
Hundreds of migrant workers from Surat, who were being ferried to Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, threw stones at the police after their buses were stopped at Halol checkpost near Waghodia in Vadodara and not allowed to proceed because of administrative issues.
Following this, agitated labourers clashed with police and indulged in stone-pelting in which a policeman received injuries while several police vehicles were damaged.
‘No valid passes’
“The buses were stopped due to lack of valid passes for onward journey to Uttar Pradesh. Some workers protested and threw stones, and we had to resort to mild baton charge to control the situation,” said a Waghodia police station official.
Unidentified persons have been charged under IPC Sections pertaining to rioting, unlawful assembly, voluntarily causing hurt, as well as provisions of Disaster Management Act but no arrests had been made, the police said.
According to officials, the bus was stopped en route in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh as the Uttar Pradesh administration had not given them permission to enter.
In another incident in northern Gujarat’s Shamlaji checkpost on Rajasthan border, over 200 labourers came out of the shelter homes, wanting to leave for home. When they were stopped by police, the group allegedly turned violent and attacked the police team, injuring a constable.
A third such incident was reported in central Gujarat on the Madhya Pradesh border. A group of migrant workers turned violent at Dahod (Gujarat) and Jhabua (MP) border when a Gujarat police team stopped the migrants from crossing the checkpost as the MP police had not allowed the entry of migrants into their territory.
Dahod police also filed an FIR against unidentified migrants for allegedly attacking the policemen.
The State officials in Gujarat have blamed lack of response from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar governments or the situation. Secondly, police and administration officials of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh also refused to allow entry of migrants of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar through their States.
There appears to be a total lack of planning and coordination between the various agencies.
Special trains
Meanwhile, two special trains carrying migrants from Gujarat were flagged off on Saturday evening to Agra and Odisha.
A special train carrying 1,200 migrants left for Agra from Ahmedabad. These workers were brought to the railway station by State transport buses from various parts of Ahmedabad.
Each passenger was charged ₹250 per ticket and the train was flagged off by Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja, who said that the passengers would be provided food and water in the train.
Another special train was flagged from Surat carrying 1,200 migrant workers to Odisha. The train was scheduled to depart on Friday but could not as the local administration, railways official and Navsari MP CR Patil were unable to decide on who will pay for the migrants.
Finally, the train departed on Saturday evening when Mr. Patil flagged it off holding BJP’s party flag, which triggered criticism from the Opposition Congress.
Veteran Congress leader Ahmed Patel asked several questions. Why was a train from Surat for migrants flagged off with a BJP flag and not the national flag? Does the train belong to the BJP or to India? Why were poor migrants paying for the journey from Gujarat to Odisha and why was their travel cost not covered by PMCares?
