After rough night, many leave Jaipur

Rajasthan govt. arranges transport for those stranded without food or water

30/03/2020, MOHAMMED IQBAL

Wait ends: Buses and waiting areas being sanitised in Jaipur on Sunday.Rohit Jain Paras

After a night-long ordeal, migrant workers leaving for their native places were on Sunday provided buses till the inter-State borders of Rajasthan, reducing their agony of walking long distances on foot.

Thousands of jobless labourers from the city’s industrial areas, including Sitapura, Vishwakarma, Mansarovar, Malviya Nagar and Bagru, waited through the night at four pick-up points after being told that transport arrangements were being made for them. The labourers spent the night on roads without food and water.

“A police van made an announcement in our area yesterday that those willing to travel by bus could reach Dugrapura, but there was no arrangement. Then we were told to come to this pick-up point,” Irshad Ali, 24, belonging to Bihar’s Supaul district, told The Hindu at Transport Nagar from where the buses left for the Uttar Pradesh border.

Mr. Ali and 20 other labourers were laid off by the cloth factory owner when the unit stopped operations since the lockdown started. Mahendra Singh, another labourer, said he and his colleagues had no money to pay rent or buy rations. “It is a matter of survival for us. We can fight the disease if we remain alive,” he said.

Over 600 buses

The Rajasthan Roadways pressed over 600 of its buses into service and also brought private buses for transporting migrant workers to the borders of U.P., Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.

Civil rights groups here demanded that camps be started and food, water and resting places be arranged for the labourers at the inter-State borders during the mass migration. “Children and women accompanying the labourers need it the most, as we have converted a public health issue into a human tragedy,” People’s Union of Civil Liberties-Rajasthan president Kavita Srivastava said.

While the activists alleged that the State government’s “callous attitude” had led to utter confusion, the issue of the U.P. government denying entry to the native labourers remained unresolved.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said Rajasthan had decided to facilitate the safe journey of migrants to their hometowns on the directions of the Union Home Ministry. He urged the Centre to intervene and give necessary directions to all States.