Special trains ferrying over 3,200 migrant labourers stranded in Maharashtra and Gujarat arrived in Lucknow, Agra and Kanpur on Sunday.
While 847 passengers from Nashik reached Lucknow by the Shramik Express, 1,265 migrant workers from Ahmedabad arrived in Kanpur via a special Sabarmati Express and another 1,200 people from the same city arrived at the Cantonment station in Agra. Two more trains are expected to reach Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh later on Sunday or early Monday morning.
The Shramik Express arrived at the Charbagh railway station at 6 a.m., said the Divisional Railway Manager, Lucknow. After their arrival, the migrants were sent in queues to the screening booths for inspection, following which they boarded roadways buses to their home districts. Only one migrant who was found symptomatic was sent to quarantine, said Awanish Awasthi, Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department.
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Screening at stations
All passengers arriving in Agra were screened and dispatched to their home districts in 40 buses, said spokesperson for Agra Railway S.K. Srivastava. Those arriving in Kanpur were inspected and sent to their hometowns in 42 buses.
Among those who arrived in Lucknow was Shivam Singh, a vendor working at the Mumbai Central railway station. He said he was stopped and quarantined in Nashik when he tried to walk back home from the Maharashtra capital.
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“We ran out of money, so I thought of walking back home. What would we do there (Mumbai) hungry and penniless,” he asked. “Somehow we reached Nashik after travelling at night, but were stopped and kept in quarantine.”
A resident of Jalaun district in the drought-stricken Bundelkhand region, from where migration of young men has been rampant over the decades, Mr. Singh said he had to borrow money to pay ₹470 for his travel fare.
However, he was relieved to be going home after being stranded for weeks. “I will at least reach my district now,” he said.
Some migrants praised the arrangements made by the railways, but some said the food provided to them was not sufficient. A passenger said they were provided food only at two places during the journey.
Lucknow District Magistrate Abhishek Prakash said the administration has already chalked out 17 routes on which buses would transport the migrants to their home districts. The bus ride would be free of cost. He said the station was mopped and sanitised before the arrival of the special train.
Mr. Awasthi said trains from south India would also start ferrying migrants back to U.P. Around 8,000 migrants from Rajasthan and 1,600 from Uttarakhand arrived in the State over the past 48 hours, he added.