After the lockdown caused by the Coronavirus, the migrant labourers engaged in construction work in various district of Jharkhand and West Bengal are forced to return to their villages. About 200 labourers reached Dania railway station in Gomia block in district on Friday evening.
More than three dozen laborers were later transported to Harladih Giridih, Tetulmari, Dhanbad, Rajganjan, Baijudih Bokaro, Ranchi, Chandrapura and Telo working in Chatra, Latehar and Asansol (WB) amid a 21-day nationwide lockdown in view of the spread of coronavirus.
The labourers were returning home on foot alongside railway tracks, when police rescued them from Dania railway station in Bokaro after getting information.Jyotilal Besra, resident of Tetulmari in Dhanbad district, Vipin Murmu of Rajganj, Gopin Murmu of Baijudih, Nitesh Hembram, Neeraj Hembram and Basudev Hembram, residents of Harladih in Giridih district said that there was no work in districts so they did not want to stay here.
“Buses and other road transportation were not available, so we decided to go home on foot and have reached here by walking through the rail tracks without having food for the last three days,” a labourer said. These people are part of the 37-member group that started through the rail tracks on Wednesday.
Imtiaz Raja, who lives near Irba Apollo Hospital in Ranchi district, said, “I know about the risk of the virus but we are helpless. How will we survive for three weeks without earning?” he asked. Imtiaz works as a labourer in a private company in Aasansol. He said that dozens of labourers are still stuck in different states who have taken their way on foot.
Police station in-charge of Jageshwar Bihar police station Vishnu Saha said that the police personnel have provided food and water to them and they talked to Bokaro District Transport Officer Santosh Garg and informed them about this. After that the district transport Officer, showing immediate activism, sent a bus at Dania railway station in Gomia from which they were sent to their respective destination.
Garg said that middle and upper class people are locked in their houses and there is not even such a big crisis on the economic front, but the working class, they were working in the unorganized sector is worse than this captive. He said that labourer have been walking on foot for last three days, it is probably also effective on his health, Civil Surgeon of the district are in contact, he will be provided them health facilities, after which they will also be given quarantine if they see the condition or symptoms of corona are found. Thereafter, the process of being released into their ancestral houses
