MUMBAI: After Surat in Gujarat, jobless migrant workers came out on the roads and blocked the highway at Gandhidham in Kutch district on Wednesday demanding that they be allowed to return homes in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh.
Surat and Ahmedabad — the industrial hubs in Gujarat — attract lakhs of labourers who are engaged in sectors such as textiles, diamond, and ceramic tiles. Surat has already seen migrant workers come out more than four times on the street and damaging public property. Their anger is fuelled further as not all are getting seats in special trains allotted for them.
Complaining that they had done all registration work, the angry migrant workers said there are not enough trains to take them home. Kutch is in the orange zone and the locals are restricting the entry of outsiders in fear of Covid spreading in this city. Several cargo trucks, which were stranded on the Gandhidham-Kandala Highway, faced the fury of these angry workers.
It is not just Gujarat as migrant workers in Maharashtra are also becoming desperate to return home. More and more cases are emerging where the police are intercepting migrant workers travelling in tempos and trucks to reach homes in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. There are videos showing migrants huddled in groups as they travel in goods carriers covering distances as much as 1,500 kM to reach home.
Migrants from UP are taking two routes from Mumbai — western UP natives are taking Mumbai-Nasik-Dhule-Indore route, while those from eastern UP are opting for Nasik- Nagpur-Chhattisgarh route.