Migrants still forced to walk miles home

BENGALURU/JAIPUR/PATNA: Migrant workers continue to walk and cycle back to their homes even as the railways last week began running special trains and some state governments deployed buses for the people stranded because of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Some do not have documents needed to register for the trains; others simply do not want to wait any longer; and in other cases, the trains themselves haven’t been approved by states that have to receive the migrant workers.

Mohammad Imran, a worker, said he began walking back on Wednesday along with his pregnant wife, children and parents from Rajasthan’s Ajmer to Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad, around 600km away, as neither bus nor train was available.

“If we get a ride, it will be good or else we will walk. It is better to move than die hungry,” he said as he walked along the Ajmer-Jaipur highway on Friday with his family.

SURAT: A man was arrested in Surat city of Gujarat on Friday for allegedly beating up a migrant from Jharkhand over booking of train tickets.

While opposition Congress claimed that accused Rajesh Verma is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker, the ruling party denied it.

“Vasudev Verma, who hails from Jharkhand, had given money to Rajesh to buy train tickets for his native state,” said assistant commissioner of police A M Parmar.

“Rajesh beat up Vasudev after he went to the collect the tickets on Thursday and they had a heated argument. We have arrested Rajesh,” the ACP said.