It is about 4 p.m. and the scorching heat spares none on the Chennai-Kolkata Highway (NH-16). Unmindful of the heat, Sunil Kumar Mehta is leading his group of seven friends walking near Puzhal hoping to reach their native place near Ranchi in Jharkhand.
“We were working at a construction site at Ambattur. Our maalik was giving us salary for a month into the lockdown. But he stopped giving money from the second month. Even the money our families sent us from Jharkhand also ran out. What do we do here?” asks Mr. Mehta.
The group of eight has one cycle, which is loaded with water bottles to help them on the way.
Don't they have a place to stay in Ambattur? “Our maalik is okay if we stayed there, but where do we go for food without any money,” he asks.
On spotting an autorickshaw, the group frantically enquires whether the vehicle can help them reach Nellore. “We heard that there are buses from Nellore to Ranchi, which costs ₹3,000 a person. Only if we reach Nellore we will know.”
Following them was another group of workers from Sriperumbudur, who are on their way to Patna in Bihar. One of them, Ramesh Oraon is in his early 20s. “There is no work and no money. What do we do here? There are no trains. Also, they are asking for Aadhaar card and I don't have one,” he laments. If all goes well, he hopes to reach his hometown in a week or 10 days.
There are workers who have bought bicycles or have taken their own cycles. Ismail Sheik is one such, who is tracking the movement of his friends walking behind near Ponniammanmedu. “We started from Medavakkam after lunch at 2. Our co-worker called to say he reached our native place, Murshidabad, yesterday. So, we too have started,” he says.
But why are not they waiting for their turn to get on a train? Should not they heed the advice of government authorities and in fact the Chief Minister too reiterated it a few days ago?
“We don’t read Tamil or English newspapers. We don’t have TV and what we hear on our phone is news for us. Also, some officials visited us and told us to remain in our camps, but for how long? It has been over 40 days since he told us but the train is nowhere to be seen,” says Mr.Sheik.
A policeman checking vehicles leaving Tamil Nadu was seen sending back those migrant workers who did not have valid passes. "There are a few more check posts until Arambakkam, after which one can reach Andhra," he says. But there is no clear information as to who is being sent to railway stations and who are being returned to their camps. Some without valid passes are sent to government camps for inter-State workers at Padiyanallur, Alamathi and Sholavaram.
When The Hindu visited the government higher secondary school at Padiyanallur, a district administration official was coordinating the buses to take these workers to either Chennai Central or Tiruvallur. “On reaching these railway stations, we will undertake thermal screening and send them home. We have sent about 2,000 people today,” says an official.
A senior official involved in the inter-State movement of workers said: “We were facing certain issues in getting timely consent from the receiving State. Now that the Home Ministry has given certain clarifications, this issue will be sorted out. We’ll be sending more trains and provide safe transit to all workers who wish to return."
