Unauthorised trucks come to rescue of migrants again

Days after the state government ordered to seal the Lucknow borders to prevent migrant labourers from travelling to their home on foot or unauthorised vehicles, a large number of labourers were seen within city limits stuffed in trucks and other vehicles and moving towards east UP districts and Bihar.

People said migrants hopped on trucks and other vehicles as the administration failed to arrange adequate number of buses and trains on time.

The district administration, meanwhile, claimed it dispatched nearly 17,000 migrant labourers in two days on 450 buses.

“On Sunday and Monday, some migrant labourers who wanted to go to Bihar were dispatched in buses till Gorakhpur. Those bound to Jammu and Laddakh were dispatched in buses till Jammu,” said additional district magistrate (ADM), city east, KP Singh.

Migrant labourers who want to go to Chhattisgarh are waiting for the arrangement.

“We are waiting for vehicles. The administration says trains will start soon,” said Sandeep Kumar of Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.

After police sealed all entry points of Lucknow on Saturday night, the movement of migrant labourers was halted.

Migrants from all entry points were taken to Shakuntala Mishra university campus.

By Monday, the strictness was eased and migrants were seen hopping onto trucks at different points of UP.

This, even when chief minister Yogi Adityanath had directed officials to arrange for private buses.

In Lucknow, around 25 private buses were dispatched on Monday while more than 100 on Sunday, said an official.

Neeraj Kumar of Bihar’s Motihari district said, “We started from Bengaluru around 6 days ago. Our truck was stopped at Jhansi on Sunday morning but allowed to move today morning.”

Kumar added, “If the government had not stopped us yesterday, would have been reached home by now. We have crossed more than half of the way. What is the point of stopping us now? We exhausted the entire savings to reach here,” said Lallan Yadav, a Motihari youth who worked as a labourer in Bengaluru.

Two trucks ferrying over 100 Motihari-bound migrant labourers stopped near Kamta bypass after seeing people distributing water bottles and food packets.

“We were told that buses will be arranged but nothing happened. They (authorities) just wasted our time,” said a migrant.