Ludhiana: Chaos as Jharkhand migrants look for train that wasn’t
LUDHIANA/JALANDHAR: Lack of coordination within the Jharkhand government regarding ‘Shramik Special’ trains from Punjab left over 70 migrants high and dry as they reached the local railway station to board a train back home, only to find none was leaving.
The first two ‘Shramik Special’ trains were planned from Punjab for Tuesday --- one from Ludhiana for Uttar Pradesh and another from Jalandhar for Jharkhand.
Ludhiana was also on track to send a train to the eastern state on Tuesday itself, but the plan was dropped after the Jharkhand government expressed reservations about receiving two trains in a day.
The administrations of various districts in Jharkhand also notified migrants over phone to reach the Ludhiana railway station.
Consequently, chaos was the order of the day at the Ludhiana railway station as migrants turned up to leave for Jharkhand. Holding on to their luggage, the hopeful migrants showed Jharkhand minister’s tweet and news clippings to the cops regarding the special train, but to no avail.
Waiting for a solution, they sat on the roadside near Jagraon Bridge, without food or water.
Many claimed they had also applied on the Punjab Helpline Portal on May 2 to travel to Jharkhand.
Eventually, DCP Sukhpal Singh Brar reached the spot around 1pm and apprised the workers of the change from Jharkhand government’s end.
TEEN KILLED IN HIT-AND-RUN
Meanwhile, A 17-year-old Uttar Pradesh boy was killed after a speeding jeep hit him and drove off on the Dhuri railway overbridge on Monday.
Police said the boy, Abhishek Kumar of Janpath Colony, South City, and his parents had heard a rumour that a train was leaving for Uttar Pradesh from the Dhandhari railway station, while no such service was announced.
TRAIN LEAVES JALANDHAR WITH 1,188 MIGRANTS
Punjab’s first ‘Shramik Express’ left the Jalandhar railway station for Daltonganj in Jharkhand with around 1,188 migrant workers on Tuesday.
The labourers, who were finally headed home after over a month’s wait, were both excited and emotional. Those who had enrolled themselves on the state government’s portal were informed of the train’s schedule through an SMS. Second special train with 1,200 workers departed from Jalandhar railway station to Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) late on Tuesday night.