Not allowed to enter UP after walking 200 km, migrants protest

Tribune News Service

Patiala, May 17

More than 150 Uttar Pradesh-bound migrant labourers held a protest at Shambhu border after they were sent back from the Haryana-UP border.

The labourers were about to cross over to Uttar Pradesh when the Haryana authorities picked them and dropped them back near Rajpura.

Anguished over this, the migrants staged a sit-in at the highway for over an hour. Some of them broke down into tears and pleaded the authorities to let them travel to their native places in Uttar Pradesh. Officials from Patiala reached the spot and pacified them.

Vineeta of Lucknow said, “We were stuck in Ludhiana as we ran out of money and have no jobs. We feel as if we don’t belong to this country. We don’t have any other option, but to walk to our homes. Sadly, the government is not even letting us do that. We don’t want to die on roads.”

Manpreet Singh, DSP, Ghanaur, said, “We are asking the migrants to stay in Punjab and the government will take care of them. We provided them food and asked them to return to their cities in Punjab and register themselves for the Shramik train journey.”

Some stay back in hope for jobs

Jalandhar, May 17

As trains continue to ferry migrants to their native places, some have decided to stay back hoping that units will be back in operation soon and they will be demand again.

Manjit Kumar, a Bihar native who works in Phagwara, said his decision to stay back might prove right as he expected to find work and a chance to earn more in view of the labour shortage. Another migrant, Nishant Kumar, who works in a hand tool manufacturing unit in Jalandhar, called up his family in UP and told them he would come later after earning more money. — TNS