Mumbai, Apr 14: Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announed extension of the coronavirus-enforced lockdown till May 3, a large number of migrant workers who earn daily wages came out on road in Mumbai on Tuesday demanding transport arrangements to go back to their native places.
Bandra in Mumbai right now. Police probing what caused such a large crowd to gather. pic.twitter.com/04H1Mnggd2
— Padmaja joshi (@PadmajaJoshi) April 14, 2020
Daily wage workers have been rendered jobless ever since the lockdown was announced late last month to stem the spread of COVID-19, making their life a constant struggle.
Though authorities and NGOs have made arrangemnets for their food, most of them want to go back to their native places to escape the hardship brought by the sweeping curbs.
Wow. Thousands of ambassadors of peace doing this at #Bandra right now. Well done @OfficeofUT, well done. The world should see this.#Covid_19 #COVIDIOTSpic.twitter.com/SdinaZXm39
— Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) April 14, 2020
According to a police official, daily wage earners, numbering around 1,000, assembled at suburban Bandra (West) bus depot near the railway station and squatted on road at around 3 pm.
The daily wage earners, who reside on rent in slums in in the nearby Patel Nagri locality, were demanding arrangement of transport facilities so that they can go back to their native towns and villages.
They originally hail from states like West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
Thousands of migrants gather at Mumbai's #Bandra railway station and protested. All are migrant workers, specially from Bihar-Bangal and they wanted to go home. They had hoped trains will start today. The police is investigating the matter and says crowd has been dispersed now. pic.twitter.com/NMHfv0CEpj
— Shivangi Thakur (@thakur_shivangi) April 14, 2020
One of the labourers, who did not reveal his name, said, NGOs and local residents are providing food to migrant workers, but they want to go back to their native states during the lockdown which has badly affected their source of livelihood.
"Now, we dont want food, we want to go back to our native place, we are not happy with the announcement (extending the lockdown)," he said, looking dejected.
Asadullah Sheikh, who hails from from Malda in West Bengal, said, We have already spent our savings during the first phase of the lockdown. We have nothing to eat now, we just want to go back at our native place, the government should made arrangements for us.
This happened in bandra just minutes back ! This can be potentially dangerous. Mumbai anyways is a hotspot ! What is the @MumbaiPolice and @OfficeofUT doing ???? Did @uddhavthackeray not provide food and shelter to such migrants ? #mumbai #UddhavThackeray #Lockdown2 pic.twitter.com/AeSuqbwhyN
— Megha Prasad (@MeghaSPrasad) April 14, 2020
Another labourer, Abdul Kayyun, said I am in Mumbai for last many years but have never seen such a situation. The government should start trains to shift us from here to our native place."
Heavy police deployment was made at the protest site to tackle any untoward incident.
Personnel from other police stations were called at the spot to maintain order, the official addd.
Comments
This muslim lady is lucky that Police only asked her to remove burqa and did not force her to wear bhagwa color saree and put tilak on her forehead as per bjp manifesto. She is also lucky that bjp backed police did not label her to be from Bangladesh. Shame on you sister for joining anti muslim and anti national Bjp. They will never accept you as Indian. Tomorrow they will say that the house you are staying was a mandir and will drag you out of it.
why she removed her burqa? it is better for her to leave the program instead of removing burqa.
She is BJP worker then she can complaint this with her party chiefs to take action on police, otherwise will leave the party.
It is not compulsory for her to attend that meeting.
What a shame, disastrous. so this is what the new India(___ Rashtriya) will be? What do the people want to do with mahatma Gandhi’s version of India? You want to change it to savatkers version? the guy who wrote mercy potions to British , who was against freedom and was aggressively against Indian flag.
Its shame. so book of thoughts (RSS book) is right leave as per yogi’s disturbed mentality’s requirement or give your neck to his sword?
Shame. People have fallen pray to the conspiracy making them feel they are insecure by handful 18% population.
“she is a BJP party worker”
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