Stranded migrants from Maharashtra  ,Karnataka, and Telangana arrive by five Shramik special train at Bokaro  Steel station during lockdown imposed in the wake of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, on Monday, May 25, 2020

Went through great difficulties as there was no work, food or money during 4-lockdown, say labourers

According to Adl Collector Vijay Kumar Gupta, on the joint initiative of Central and State Government, the work of transporting migrant laborers to their home district is being done since last May 1, 2020.

 A total of 4711 migrant laborers arrived at the railway station today and they were welcome by the Bokaro District Administration and were sent to their destination districts by about 200 buses with food and water,added Gupta. 

The first special train arrived at Bokaro Steel City railway station after running train number-01870 from Kolhapur Maharashtra to Bokaro, with a total of 1304 migrant laborers in this train. 

These migrant laborers included 35 from Dumka district, 05 from Jamshedpur, 54 from Godda, 37 from Pakur, 378 from Palamu, 08 from Sahebganj, 49 from West Singhbhum and 739 migrant laborers from Orissa state.

 While the second special train, train number 07701, from Ghatkesar, Telangana state reached Bokaro Steel City with a total of 420 migrant laborers.  These include 37 of Bokaro, 02 of Chatra, 08 of Deoghar, 20 of Dhanbad, 24 of Dumka, 01 of Jamshedpur, 6 of Garhwa, 84 of Giridih, 07 of Gonda, 10 of Gumla, 11 of Hazaribagh, 15 of Jamtara, Khunti, 03 of Koderma, 56 of Latehar, 32 of Lohardaga, 12 of Pakud, 18 of Palamu, 17 of Ramgarh, 24 of Ranchi, 07 of Sahibganj, 07 of Saraikela, 03 of Simdega, 01 of West Singhbhum and others of the state.  04 migrant laborers were aboard.

The third special train (train no. 06587) from Hooghly in West Bengal reached Bokaro Steel City early morning on Monday.  There were a total of 1237 migrant laborers were aboard in this train.  It includes 46 of Chatra, 61 of Deoghar, 37 of Dhanbad, 25 of Dumka, 58 of Jamshedpur, 50 of Garhwa, 99 of Giridih, 184 of Godda, 15 of Gumla, 74 of Hazaribagh, 04 of Jamtara, 04 of Khunta, Koderma.  K 28, Latehar 49, Lohardaga 03, Pakamu 30, Palamu 85, Ramgarh 58, Ranchi 48, Sahibganj 44, Saraikela 34, Simdega 26, West Singhbhum 68 and 114 migrant laborers from other states  Was aboard.

 The fourth special train train number 0770 Ghatkesar reached Telangana and reached Bokaro Steel City railway station. This train had a total of 250 passengers.  This includes 61 of Bokaro, 07 of Chatra, 03 of Deoghar, 58 of Dhanbad, 05 of Dumka, 03 of Jamshedpur, 10 of Godda, 01 of Hazaribagh, 16 of Jamtara, 01 of Koderma, 12 of Latehar, 07 of Palamu, Ranchi.  K04, 37 from Sahibganj, 14 from Seraikela, 10 from West Singhbhum and migrant laborers from another state were aboard.

The last fifth special train (train no. 06557) reached Bokaro Steel City afternoon from Bangalore and it had a total of 1500 migrant laborers.  In this train, 42 of Bokaro, 108 of Chatra, 135 of Deoghar, 90 of Dhanbad, 40 of Dumka, 67 of Jamshedpur, 160 of Garhwa, 167 of Giridih, 44 of Godda, 18 of Gumla, 92 of Hazaribagh, 18 of Jamtara.  , 14 of Khunti, 92 of Koderma, 10 of Latehar, 12 of Lohardaga, 57 of Pakud, 124 of Palamu, 30 of Ramgarh, 96 of Ranchi, 44 of Sahibganj, 13 of Saraikela, 13 of Simdega, and 11 of West Singhbhum.  There were 11 migrant laborers.

They hail from 24 districts but most of them are from the Palamu district. They included labourers, and students. They were taken to a local tea stalls near the station for lunch and to fill a form after thermal screening.

Most of the migrant labourers told journalists that they would prefer to work in their home town itself, if provided opportunities in our state.

“For the last 60 days, we went through great difficulties as there was no work, food or money… no relief was given by the government there, but we got food from the railways and Bokaro district administration during our journey,” said some migrants from the Palamu district who were working as mason in Kolhapur.

A large number of officials, including the Adl Collector Vijay Kumar Gupta, Chas SDO Sashi Ranjan Singh and, along with railway staff were present at the station to welcome the migrants.

Later, they will be taken to their respective districts in buses which are parked at the Bokaro railway premises near the station. All the buses were sanitised earlier. The Bokaro railway station too was sprinkled with disinfectants.