Agencies
Bhopal/Barwani (MP)
Demanding food and transportation, hundreds of migrant workers on Thursday pelted stones near Sendhwa on the Madhya Pradesh-Maharashtra border.
Thousands of migrants, on the way to northern states from Maharashtra amid the coronavirus crisis, are pouring in at Sendhwa in Madhya Pradesh's Barwani district.
Eye witnesses said that groups of migrants created ruckus, alleging that government machinery made no arrangement of food and transportation for them.
In the afternoon, some of them pelted stones, but nobody was injured in the incident, witnesses said.
Shailesh Tripathi, who reached Barwani from Pune, said migrants, which included pregnant women, senior citizens and children, were facing a lot of hardship in the absence of food, water and transportation facilities.
A large number of migrants were waiting for food and transport on MP-Maharashtra border for hours, and people from Satna, Rewa, Anuppur and other districts of MP were also among them, he said.
Barwani collector Amit Tomar said the migrants were sent to transit points in different districts in 135 buses from the border.
Stone-pelting took place as some migrants felt after the buses left that there would not be any more vehicles for those left behind, but officials reassured them and calmed them down, he said.
Meanwhile, the state government said about 15,000 migrant labourers were taken from Sendhwa border (Bijasen Ghat border) to other places in the past three days while there has been a huge influx from Maharashtra.
"The maximum pressure of migrants is being faced at Bijasan Ghat on the border of Sendhwa (MP-Maharashtra). 5,000 to 6,000 migrant workers are reaching there every day," a government statement said.
