With 1200 migrants, Shramik Special train leaves Jalandhar for Jharkhand

Ajay Joshi
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, May 5

The first ‘Shramik special’ train, carrying 1,188 migrant workers stranded in Punjab, left Jalandhar for Daltonganj in Jharkhand on Tuesday.

The train ferrying migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar left at 1.15 PM and is expected to reach its destination at 10 AM on Wednesday.

Migrants across India have been left without work amid the lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus. Unable to meet ends here since the last 40 days, the migrants were in high spirits to join their families in their native villages.

Vikas Kumar, an 18-year-old man, who had arrived here at the beginning of this year, said the lockdown had made survival difficult for over a month now.

“I had come here to earn some income so that I could support my family back in Palamu district in Jharkhand. However, I am jobless since the COVID outbreak. I can’t tell when I will resume my job but I am glad that finally, I’ll be able to eat three times a day. I could manage to eat regular meals only until for the first week of the lockdown, thereafter we relied on the ‘langar seva’,” he said.

Another migrant, Deenanath (40), who was standing on the queue to get his registration clearance at the railway station, said that he had run out of ration and money immediately after the lockdown.

“As a daily wage earner, my family of five was dependent on the little savings that sustained us for not more than ten days,” he said. He was staying here with his wife and three children at a rented accommodation near Focal Point.

“The landlord kept asking us to pay the rent. So I gave him Rs 600, but soon after I didn’t have any money and there were days when we slept on an empty stomach. My wife and children are happy now that they will be at home without any shortage of food. I will also do farming back home to keep my pockets filled,” added Deenanath.

Many other migrants, including women and children, boarded the train. The migrants started began coming to the station at 8 AM. Amid high security, only those who had completed their online ticket registration and gone through COVID testing were allowed to board the train.

The decision to run the train came after the Centre allowed the inter-state movement of migrants and students during the lockdown. ADC Jasbir Singh said special arrangements were made to bring the migrants to the station. Roadways buses were roped in to bring the migrants from assigned spots and all necessary precautions were taken, including screening of passengers and maintaining social distancing at the station and inside the buses. The migrants were not anything and the administration paid Rs 7,01,200 to railway authorities before the commencement of the journey.

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