VIJAYAWADA: After waiting for over a month to go home, 1,004 migrant workers from Maharashtra were a happy lot as they finally boarded the second Shramik Express from Rayanapadu Railway Station at 1 am on Wednesday and reached Gadchiroli Railway Station at 9 am. The migrants thanked the AP government for arranging the train and providing them food and drinking water.
Speaking to TNIE, 35-year-old Usha Ladwe, who had come to Guntur district as a chilli plucker, said that their work had finished almost two months back and they had started packing bags to return home, when their employer informed that they could not go home till the lockdown was lifted. She said that she was aware about the virus, but not about its intensity.
“Initially, we could stay and eat using the money we had earned. But as time passed by, one meal per day also become a luxury,” she said. When asked why they want to go to their native places even though the situation was worse in Maharashtra, 43-year-old Hema Jijure said that it was better to die in the presence of family members than die of hunger here.
Despite the government’s claim that they will bear all travel charges of bus ticket from migrants’ place of work to the railway station and train ticket from AP to respective State, the migrants had to pay a bus ticket of `310 each to reach Rayanapadu railway station. However, the train fare was not collected from them.