Chaos in Telangana over e-passes
Karnataka operates free buses to districts for migrant workers
04/05/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,HYDERABAD
On their way: Migrant workers boarding buses at the Majestic bus station in Bengaluru on Sunday. K. Murali Kumar K. Murali Kumar
While there was chaos in Telangana on Sunday over e-passes for migrant workers, the Karnataka government operated free buses to districts.
In Telangana, hours after Director-General of Police M. Mahender Reddy announced an e-pass initiative to help the stranded return to their home States, the Tolichowki area near Hyderabad saw a large number of migrant workers coming onto the roads seeking travel permission.
The workers were not able to get any such immediate permission for inter-State travel since they did not have private transport. They demanded that the government make arrangements to send them back to their native places.
Police officials reached the area and pacified them, promising food and other help as long as they were in Telangana. “We assured to provide them groceries and other essential commodities. We gave them food and water, before sending them back to their dwellings,” said Hyderabad Joint Commissioner of Police (West) A.R. Srinivas. He said 1,000-odd construction workers, daily wage labour and petty vendors, who used to sell food stuff on the roadside before the lockdown, came out of their dwellings around 9.30 a.m., and gathered on Tolichowki streets. They were dispersed within a few hours.
Most of the migrant workers were from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal.
Meanwhile, many others stranded in Telangana made a beeline at police stations across the three urban Commissionerates — Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda — as the e-pass dashboard failed. These inter-State travel permission seekers included students, IT employees from other States, and youngsters whose families reside outside of Telangana or Hyderabad limits.
Police officials issued passes to all applicants who had their documents in order, including those who sought intra-State travel.
500 buses
After facing flak for charging exorbitant fares to transport stranded migrants in Bengaluru, the Karnataka government started ferrying migrants to their respective districts without any fare from Sunday morning. This service will be available till Tuesday from the BMTC and KSRTC bus stands in Majestic. On Sunday, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) operated around 500 buses from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. with around 15,000 people travelling to over 45 destinations across the State, sources said. From Tuesday, buses will ply from 7 a.m. in the morning.
Thousands of people, including migrant workers, students and others thronged the BMTC bus stand in Majestic on Sunday, immediately after the State government announced that it would ferry stranded migrants to their respective districts without any fare.
(With inputs from Bengaluru Bureau)
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