As thousands of migrant workers walk and cycle through Odisha to their States, the police have hired buses to drop them at the border.
The police said two buses from Sohela dropped migrants from Jharkhand at Biramitrapur in Sundargarh district and two from Kerada in Rayagada districts dropped those from Chhattisgarh at Nabarangapur and Nuapada. Two buses from Girisola and Berhampur helped the migrants from West Bengal reach Jamsola in Mayurbhanj district.
Migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, who were stranded in southern States, have been walking or cycling to their States in the past one month. National Highway 16 that runs along the east coast of West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu is the major route them. In the past few days, there has been a sudden increase in the number of migrants returning home.
“My team members have intercepted at least 30 groups passing through Bhubaneswar and provided them with food in the past one week,” Kalyan Anand, a social activist, said on Thursday.
As migrants are walking without food and water, truckers have come to their rescue. They were found jostling for space on trucks passing through NH-16.
Fifteen migrants were injured when a bus in which they were travelling hit a tree in Angul district on Wednesday night. While 11 were discharged, four were still under treatment at the Angul district headquarters hospital.
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