Re-starting of Shramik trains from Karantaka to various States has come as a relief to migrant workers who had begun their journey on foot to States such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Nearly 300 of them, who began their walk on Wednesday but were detained by the police and housed in two choultries at Kodigehalli, left for Uttar Pradesh on a train on Friday evening.
“We had given up hope, but the government has shown some mercy at last. I find it hard to believe that I will actually reach home in three days,” said an elated Chanchal, 29, a carpenter from Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh, speaking to The Hindu from the train.
Still on foot
Not all labourers, however, have stopped their trek back home. Several new groups of labourers began their walk home on Friday, despite knowing that the trains have restarted. “We spent nearly a week to register online. We don’t trust that we will get a train ticket any time soon,” said Mohammed Asgar, 31, a plumber from Sarangpur, Uttar Pradesh. He was detained by the police on the highway as he was walking home and said he was biding his time to restart his walk after nightfall.
Girish Chand, 28, a painter from Gorakhpur district, said they had no place to wait for the government to put them on a train. “The landlord made us vacate the house for non-payment of rent. The ₹6,000 advance we had paid was made good for rent of two months we were unable to pay. We are anyway on the streets, so better we start walking home,” he said.
Bhimashankar Guled, DCP (Northeast), said they had been patrolling National Highway 44 on Friday and detained over 1,500 persons who had begun their walk home the same day. “We sent back those who had accommodation to stay in the city, telling them to wait for their turn to get on a train. We also arranged two shelters where there are around 150 labourers who did not have houses to go back to,” he said.
Migrant labourers are taking the highway in the zone to leave the city. Dr. Guled said there was a special train to Uttar Pradesh on Saturday only for people in the zone.
Till Hyderabad
Meanwhile, several of the labourers The Hindu had caught up with on Thursday as they trekked along the highway had reached Hyderabad by Friday evening. Rajesh Paswan, 31, a painter, said most of them walked till the Andhra Pradesh border where the police stopped them. “They gave us dinner and asked us to return to Bengaluru. But we refused. Eventually, they put us in a truck to Hyderabad. We are trying to find some transport from here. If not, we will resume our walk on Saturday,” he said.
Mohammed Naushad, 28, who sold ready-made garments on the pavements of Majestic, said Andhra Pradesh police sent them back towards Bengaluru. However, as they were walking back, a truck driver offered them a ride. “We are a group of eight. We will get dropped till Nagpur in the truck as it is headed there,” he said.
