Mumbai: In two separate incidents, the Nagpada Police on Thursday intercepted and seized trucks carrying 110 people to their hometown in Uttar Pradesh. In a similar crackdown, the Maharashtra Police found 300 migrant workers crammed inside two container trucks near Pandharkavda toll booth in Yavatmal district, which were ostensibly carrying essential commodities from Telangana to Rajasthan.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day country-wide lockdown on Tuesday, migrants and daily wage labourers, who were directly hit with no work available and no roof over their heads, panicked and started looking for ways to reach their home towns. However, with no vehicles other than those transporting essential services allowed to ply on the roads, scores of people found illegal ways to go back home.
According to police officers, they had received information that a huge number of daily wage workers were leaving the city after their employers refused to provide them food and shelter amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown. The workers included salesmen, and those working in the textiles industry and imitation jewellery business.
The Highway Police are now checking each and every vehicle passing through several check points in the state and are verifying the drivers’ usual claims of the vehicles transporting essential commodities by checking the cargo, said a senior official.
In the crackdown by the Nagpada police, a truck was intercepted near Akbar Pirbhai college in Nagpada area. On searching the vehicle, the police found 46 people inside who were going to their hometown in Gonda in UP. Police then arrested the truck’s driver, Faisan Jabrulla Khan, 22, and its owne, Nauser Khan, 55.
The Nagpada police also intercepted a truck carrying 64 people going to Bahraich in UP, and arrested its driver Saddam Shaikh, 28, and agent Noormohammad Idrisi, 38.
All 110 workers who were attempting to leave the city were shifted to a ground in Nagpada, where they have been given food and shelter. The police have asked their employers in the city to provide them accommodation for the time being.
In the incident that occurred near Yavatmal, over 300 migrant workers, who hailed from Rajasthan, were crammed inside two container trucks meant to be carrying essential commodities from Telangana to Rajasthan. Action was initiated against the drivers of the trucks, but police officers are at a loss on how to deal with the hapless workers.
Meanwhile, in the last seven days, the Mumbai Police has registered 170 cases for unlawful assembly and violation of prohibitory orders.
