On Tuesday, a few hours after PM Modi’s speech extending the lockdown a mob gathered at the Bandra station believing that trains would run and take them home. Combined with another rumour about food grains being distributed, meant a mob of a thousand people gathered there.
Sources told the Free Press Journal that it started around 3 PM. The mob refused to disperse till the local police reached there to diffuse the situation.
There were instances of lathi charge as local MLA Zeeshan Siddiqui and his father and former minister Baba Siddiqui helped the cops to clear the area by 6 PM. Most of those gathered there were labourers.
Home Minister Amit Shah also called up Uddhav Thackeray to take stock.
The letter that caused panic appeared to be about the proposal of Jansadharan Special Trains to take migrants home. The letter was issued a day earlier.
Maha Home Minister Anil Desmukh said that the migrant workers expected those who gathered outside Bandra station were expecting PM Modi to reopen the state borders.
The migrants were assured that the state government will make arrangement of food and accommodation for them, following which the crowds dispersed, he said.
"Lakhs of workers from other states work in Mumbai. They expected that the PM would open the state borders today. They felt they could go to their home states," the minister said.
"But the PM and CM (Uddhav Thackeray) took a very good decision to extend the lockdown. The state borders will remain sealed. Permission will not be given to go to other states from Maharashtra," he said.
"We have assured them the state government will arrange facilities for stay and food, and the situation is under control now," Deshmukh told Marathi news channel ABP Majha.
Thackeray slams Centre
Maharashtra Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray on Tuesday blamed the Centre for the protest by hundreds of migrant workers near Bandra railway station here and sought a road map to facilitate their journey back to their native places.
Hundreds of migrant workers who earn daily wages in Mumbai came out on road on Tuesday afternoon demanding transport arrangements to go back to their native places. The protest took place hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an extension of the coronavirus-enforced lockdown till May 3.
In a series of tweets, Thackeray said, "The current situation in Bandra, now dispersed or even the rioting in Surat is a result of the union government not being able to take a call on arranging a way back home migrant labour." "They don't want food or shelter, they want to go back home," Thackeray said.
He felt a mutual road map drawn up with the Union government will help migrant labourers travel from one state to another during the lockdown period and reach their homes.
Thackeray said feedback from all migrant labour camps is similar - that these workers want to go back to their native places.
"Many are refusing to eat or stay in these camps," he said.
Currently, more than six lakh people are housed in various shelter camps across Maharashtra, he said.
With inputs from agencies
