Mumbai: Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation and extended the country-wide lockdown till May 3, a crowd of well over a thousand migrant workers gathered at a bus depot near Bandra railway station on Tuesday afternoon in Bandra (West), violating the norms of the lockdown and demanding that transportation arrangements be made to allow them to return to their hometowns and native places.
The angry and frustrated crowd was, however, dispersed two and a half hours later, after police intervened and resorted to lathi charge.
A source from the area said a truck was brought near Bandra railway station to distribute food packets and essential food grains to the needy, with police permission. However, things soon went out of control when over 700 people turned up.
They were mostly from the nearby Patel Nagar area, where a large number of migrant labourers stay on rent. What added fuel to the fire was a rumour about long-distance trains being run, which attracted another 1000-plus people, mostly migrant workers.
According to a police official, daily wage earners assembled near Bandra railway station around 3pm and squatted on the road demanding arrangement of transport facilities so that they could go back to their native towns and villages.
"The irate labourers staged a protest expressing their displeasure, which turned aggressive. Mild police force in the form of lathi charge was used to disperse them from the spot," said Pranaya Ashok, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations).
The Bandra Police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) against 800-1000 unidentified people, said Abhishek Trimukhe, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 9).
"The accused have been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for rioting and disobedience of orders promulgated by a public servant, and for sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897. Prima facie, it has come to fore that a few rumours had been spread and we are trying to verify and identify the accused people."
The people who had gathered were mostly labourers who are not able to earn their wages since the government imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 25.
"The migrants demanded that trains be run to UP and Bihar, so that they can go back to their native places,” said BJP MLA Ashish Shelar, who was at the spot.
Meanwhile, the head of the Uttar Bhartiya Mahapanchayat, Vinay Dubey, said, if the demands of the migrant workers were not met, around 3 lakh workers would gather at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Kurla on April 18 and stage a protest.
"When people from rich families can be flown back to India, the state government must make some arrangements to send these helpless migrant labourers back to their native places. They come here, away from their families, looking for a source of livelihood.
They have no jobs now, and the condition they live in is inhuman. They are very scared and want to go back. They felt that the nationwide lockdown will be over and long-distance trains will resume services from April 15. They are stuck here, and the state government must do something to help them,” Dubey said.
He added, “If their demands are not met, around 3 lakh labourers from Thane, Kalyan and Mumbai will gather at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus on April 18 and protest against the government." (According to a news portal, Mumbai Police have registered a FIR against Dubey at Azad Maidan Police Station over Bandra incident. He is said to have incited the crowd to gather at Bandra Station by putting out false social media posts.)
“We have already spent our savings during the first phase of the lockdown. We have nothing to eat now, we just want to go back at our native place, the government should made arrangements for us,” said Asadullah Sheikh, a migrant worker who hails from Malda in West Bengal.
Another labourer, Abdul Kayyun, said, "I am in Mumbai for the past several years, but have never seen such a situation. The government should start trains to shift us from here to our native place."
