SURAT: For the fourth time in less than a month, migrant workers in Gujarat’s Surat district came out on the streets with the demand to return home but soon their protest turned violent leaving nearly a dozen policemen injured on Monday.
In Kadodara area, over 1,000 workers came out on roads demanding that they should be allowed to return to their home states.
Left without jobs due to the extended lockdown, these workers are becoming restless to return homes. Police fired shells and baton-charged to control the agitated workers for bringing them under control.
“Migrants have no work at their hand besides they are bored with eating the same food at shelter homse. If there is no work, then they have no point staying back in congested and overcrowded places…,” said senior Congress leader Arjun Mondwadia.
There are about a million migrants in Surat who are mainly employed in power loom sector.
In the last three days, the government had arranged 18 trains to ensure the safe passage of nearly 21,000 migrants from Ahmedabad and Surat which draws workforce from Maharashtra, Odisha, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh among others.
Many migrants from Maharashtra have already left on foot for their homes.