Even as India nears the end of the third phase of the lockdown, migrant workers still seem a far way off from getting any respite. On Wednesday morning, around 1,000 migrant labourers gathered at Nagpada in South Mumbai to press for their demand to be sent back to their hometowns in the northern parts of India immediately, said an official, The New Indian Express reported.
The official also said that the police used force and lathicharged the protestors as the situation went out of control. He said, “Hundreds of stranded people, who wanted to go to their hometowns, gathered near hotel Rippon Palace, and demanded that a special train be arranged for them to go to their native places.” He added that most of them had already submitted their documents to the police for verification and other formalities.
The #Mumbai Police on Wednesday, May 13, resorted to lathi charge after hundreds of migrant workers gathered at Belasis Road in #Nagpada demanding an immediate train to Uttar Pradesh.#migrantworkers #lathicharge pic.twitter.com/FNTvp7Lt1B
— The Logical Indian (@LogicalIndians) May 14, 2020
“As they came onto the streets in the large numbers and as the situation was going out of control, the police used force to control them”, he said.
The police tried to reason with them about them violating the lockdown. “A meeting was later held at the Nagpada Police Station, during which the migrants were reassured that trains would be arranged to take them to their native places,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (detection) Shahaji Umap told The Hindu.
He also said, “The people are desperate to go home, but procedure requires us to collect their information, get NOCs from the State government, apply to the Railway authorities for approval and then arrange for the trains. The Railways, too, are burdened.”
In the meanwhile, an offence of unlawful assembly, disobedience of an order promulgated by a public servant and negligent act likely to spread infection or disease dangerous to life under the Indian Penal Code along with sections of the Disaster Management Act, and the Epidemic Diseases Act have been imposed. Four people were taken into custody and later released after being given notices under the CrPC.
On Tuesday, around 2,000 migrants – men, women and children – gathered at a school in Boisar, in Palghar district, hoping to catch a ‘Shramik’ special train to Bihar. The people gathered there starting 6 AM after having heard that a special train would run from Palghar to Patna on Tuesday afternoon. However, the administration denied having plans of running any such train to the state of Bihar, claiming that the migrants were misinformed. No case was filed against the labourers and the police has started investigating the source of the wrong information which made the crowd gather at the school premises, The Hindustan Times reported.
Palghar: Thousands of #migrant workers from Bihar protest near Boisar Industrial Area. Workers demanded a train for Bihar to be arranged for their transport. pic.twitter.com/JBJMlxrdlo
— Mojo Story (@themojo_in) May 12, 2020
Migrants cheated
While in one corner of the city, migrants put up a protest in Nagpada, demanding to go home, reports of 37 migrants headed to their home state Odisha allegedly being cheated by trick drivers and cops in Navi Mumbai emerged, The Times of India reported.
It was reported that the migrants were allegedly cheated of Rs. 40,000 by the truck driver who abandoned the vehicle after Valiv police intercepted it on Monday night. The migrants claimed to also have paid the cops on patrol duty Rs. 9,000 to allow them to continue with their journey. Valiv police inspector Vilas Chougule said, “We have identified the truck driver and have asked him to report to the police station. The money will be recovered from him and returned to the workers.”
Local activist Santosh Thakur said the trucker had taken an advance of Rs 40,000 to ferry the 37 migrants from Fanaspada in Vasai (E) to their villages in Ganjam and Khordha in Odisha. Prashant Pradhan, one of the migrants, told TOI, “We left from Vasai at 9pm on Monday. After 5km, the Valiv police intercepted the truck. We paid Rs 9,000 to the police and hoped to continue our journey.” But the trucker, on the pretext of dinner, slipped away, abandoning the migrants inside the vehicle.
Swarnlata Parida, another migrant travelling with her two-year-old son said, “We spent the night on the road. When the police did not let us pass till 11 AM the next day, we returned to Fanaspada.”
It was later found out that the driver did not have permission to travel to another state and the Palghar district collector, Kailash Shinde, ordered an inquiry into the incident. Now, Vasai tehsildar Kiran Survase said that arrangements for migrants’ return to Odisha would be made by him.
According to latest reports, following an order by the Palghar collector, the police have recovered Rs. 52,000 belonging to the 37 Odisha migrants who were cheated of it by the trucker. The cops too have returned the money to the migrants.
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