Guest workers flock Secunderabad for trains
An Assamese has been waiting at railway stations to return home for 15 days
Scores of guest workers continue to arrive at the Secunderabad railway station every day, hoping for a miracle in the form of a special train that will take them home. They seldom have any plan other than making it to the station. Once they get here, they are out of options.
Since May 1, more than two lakh guest workers have been transported out of Telangana state in Shramik Special trains. However, many have been left behind.
Pradeep Das (36), a native of Silchar, Assam, has been living on the footpath near the Secunderabad station for six days. He was working at a steel factory but has work dried up and he wants to go back home. Before Secunderabad, he had camped out near the Nampally station for over a week. He has never been able to register to board a train home.
The reason, according to him, is that he doesn’t have an Aadhaar card. “Some of my clothes and all my money were stolen from my bag at Nampally when I was sleeping. Since then, I have been trying to register at police stations for a train but I have been denied since I don’t have my Aadhaar card. I don’t even remember the number,” he said. His voter ID card and PAN card have not been of much help.
Two days ago, the police and South Central Railway had operated 43 trains in 12 hours, many from Secunderabad.
Das approached the police for help but was sent away. Breaking into tears, he said: “I have been living on the roads. I don’t have any money. I don’t know when I will see my wife and children again.”
He has been living near the gurudwara near Regimental Bazaar where the langar provides him food.
From Page 1
For Das, and many others like him stuck near the station, even going to the bathroom can be a massive inconvenience. They are forced to use the pay-and-use toilet near the bus stop. Some guest workers said they were paying `10 to use the loo each time. Das said he hadn’t taken a bath for at least a month.
There were many who came to Secunderabad for the same reason — they didn’t know what else they could do. Rajesh Yadav and eight of his friends had walked for several hours under the hot sun all the way from Kondapur on Monday. They wanted to get to their hometowns in Katni district, Madhya Pradesh.
They used to work at a construction site near Kothaguda junction and lived in houses provided to them by their contractor.
Earlier in the day, they had gone to the local police to ask about the special trains. They were told there wouldn’t be trains anytime soon and were asked to return to their homes.
They could no longer do that. They were scolded for stepping outside. Yadav said, “Our contractor said we were unsafe and could be carrying the virus and forbade us from entering the compound. We became homeless in a matter of minutes. We decided to come to Secunderabad. Now we will decide what to do.”