No SMS, workers crowd rly station

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

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Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 13

Shailender, a migrant, packed his bags three days ago and left his quarter. In the desperation of going back, he went to the checking centre without even receiving any confirmatory SMS of rail ticket. After spending hours outside the centre, he returned to work. His fellow workers refused to work with him and even the quarter owner didn’t allow him to stay because of fear of contacting the virus. It was a double whammy for him.

In Jalandhar, several labourers like him are thronging checking centres where medical screening of those with confirmation to board trains is being done.

Officials said the labourers were putting themselves to high risk.

An owner of a pipe fitting manufacturing unit said three of his workers left work without even telling him, and after spending some hours at the checking centre, they came back. “Their fellow workers said they didn’t want to work in their presence because they thought the workers who had left and spent several hours amid thousands of other migrants might have been infected,” he said.

Jasbir Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner (General), said lakhs of the migrants had applied to go back, but the availability of the transportation was limited. “It is not possible to accommodate everyone at a time. They should wait for their turn,” he said.

1.1 lakh reach home via trains

Chandigarh: The state government said it had been facilitating the return of migrants to their native states. More than 90 trains have left from Punjab taking 1,10,000 migrants to their respective states. The state government has spent more than Rs6 crore to fund the movement of migrants till now. tns