Such a long journey: Six more special trains ferry migrants from Mumbai

The railways on Saturday operated two special trains from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) to ferry around 1,200 migrants workers to Gonda railway station in Uttar Pradesh (UP). A third Shramik Special train departed from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) to Gonda railway station later in the evening. On Saturday later at night, the railways operated a train for migrant workers from CSMT to Basti in Uttar Pradesh.

“Trains towards Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are being operated from the city. The state government informs on the destination and the departing railway stations, following which we run the trains,” said a senior Central Railway (CR) official.

Meanwhile, a train ferrying migrant workers to Barauni in Bihar left from Thane on Saturday at 2.50pm, while some labourers from Odisha left from Panvel railway station to Titlagarh station.

“The train departed from Thane station with 1,200 passengers who followed all rules of social distancing and sanitisation,” said a senior official from CR, Mumbai.

This is the second Shramik train from Thane to Bihar. On Thursday, a train had left with migrants to Bapudham Motihari.

“The train on Saturday mostly had passengers from Mumbra and Daighar. The previous train had the passengers from Thane,” said a railway official from Thane.

Meanwhile, some migrants in Navi Mumbai, who have opted to stay back, have alleged that they have not been getting any provisions or food as officials are busy in making arrangements to send labourers back home.

“Our stock of food grains and other essential have got. We tried to contact the officials but could not reach them. We got an NGO’s phone number and asked them to help us with grocery,” said Bhola Prasad, 33, from Bihar.

He has decided to stay back in Panvel at the construction site where he used to work till the lockdown. He hopes to construction activity will start soon.

“For a month, we survived on savings. But that soon dried up. The civic body was helping till now but off late they have stopped. Now, we are depending on the NGO,” said Prasad, who lives with his wife and brother.

Pritima Husna, 29, from Bengal, who used to work as house help, lives in Kamothe with her husband, brother-in-law and parents-in-law.

“We got some help from the government but we want to go back home. The long queue for application has put us off. We will wait for some time,” said Husna.

Amol Nagkar, 40, an activist, said he gets around eight calls every day from people in need of food and ration.

“It is true now officials are busy making arrangements to send migrants home. Most of the labourers got ration only once and after that nobody enquired if they needed anything. After the government started sending migrants home, more people are calling us for food and essentials,” said Nagkar.

Some like Sonkar Lal, 36, from Jharkhand have decided to stay back, hoping the situation improves soon.

“Going home is a hassle and staying back is also a problem. If officials stop looking at our needs, how will we survive?” said Sonkar Lal, 36, who he used to work as an electrician.

He lives in Kamothe with his wife, five-year-old daughter and his younger brother.

Jamir Lengarekar, additional commissioner, Panvel City Municipal Corporation (PCMC), said that those who are staying back are not inconvenienced.

“We have appointed an official to look after the requirement of the migrants and distribute essentials. We will look into the issue.,” said Lengarekar.