Yamuna water no damper to labourers heading home

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, May 14

Migrants continue their journey on foot or on cycles to reach their hometowns.

Some of them are risking their lives by crossing the Yamuna on the Haryana-UP border with the help of tyre tubes or boat. “People are crossing the Yamuna by boat or tyre-tube near Khurgan village in UP and Bhushera in Haryana. The locals are charging Rs40-100 per person,” said Furquen of Kairana in UP.

A group of migrant labourers from Chandigarh was waiting for their turn on the bank of the Yamuna to cross it with the help of tyre-tubes.

“When we tried to cross the border, the police used force to send us back. So we had no option but to risk our lives by crossing the river with the help of tyre-tubes,” said Dayanand, a labourer who wants to go to Bihar.

Apart from them, there are several migrants who are walking towards the UP border. They are desperate to go to their home even though they were stopped by the police on border and sent back.

Carrying bags in hands or on shoulders, Tofik, Sarwan and Angad, in their 20s, are walking slowly to Lucknow, approximately 680 km from here.

DC Nishant Kumar Yadav said they were trying that no migrants — even from other states — should walk on roads to go to their native places. “We are sending them to shelter homes and providing foods and other basic needs. The government is providing them train facility to send them to their hometowns.”

Train takes 1,440 migrants to Bihar

Panipat/Sonepat: As many as 1,440 industrial workers, hailing from 13 districts of Bihar, were on Thursday sent to their native places in a train from the Panipat railway station. The labourers were working at the HSIIDC complex at Bari near Gannaur in Sonepat district. Earlier, they were brought to Panipat in 40 Haryana Roadways buses. tns