A few migrants remain stranded as special train leaves for Jharkhand

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 5

Eager to be with his folks back in Palamu district in Jharkhand, Ashish Kumar (26) remained awake on Monday night as he had started his day early today to travel to his native place.

However, things got rough after he could not board the ‘Shramik Special’ train, his only hope to return to his native village.

A daily wager, Ashish was residing with his father in the Cantt area here. Though he was left here alone, his father managed to board the train. Like Ashish, over 24 migrant workers have a similar story to share.

Even after reaching the station on time, they failed to board the train. Considering himself unlucky, Gopal Mehta, another migrant, who was working as a salesman in the city, and other migrants alleged that they could not get a seat in the train due to miscommunication by administration officials. Even as they had completed their online registration and medical check-up, they could not get tickets. With an assurance that they would send another train, the officials made them sit outside the station, they said.

Ferrying around 1,188 migrant workers stranded in the district, the special train left Jalandhar for Daltonganj in Jharkhand on Tuesday.

The train ferrying migrants from Bihar, Jharkhand and UP departed from the station at 1.15 pm and will cover a journey of around 20 hours to reach its destination.

Unable to make ends meet since the past 40 days, the migrants were happy to join their families in their native villages. Manoj Kumar, who was stranded in the city since the lockdown, said the lockdown had made him go through tough days.

“There were days when we didn’t have regular meals. The landlord also demanded us to pay the rent. Troubled by uneasy situations, some of my friends left for their villages on bicycles,” said Manoj.

These migrants who had enrolled them on the portal of the state government were delivered SMS and were called at different spots from where they were brought to the station on roadways buses. Amid high security, only those who had completed their online ticket registration and gone through Covid testing were allowed to board the train.

ADC Jasbir Singh said all necessary precautions were taken, including screening of passengers and maintaining social distancing at the station and inside buses. The state government paid Rs 7,01,200 to the railway authorities before the safe and free-of-cost journey of the migrants.