Migrant workers have been returning back to their home states in large numbers through special Shramik Special trains. Recently, a batch of migrant workers who had arrived at the Katihar railway station in Bihar from Kerala via a special Shramik Special Train were brutally lathi-charged by the police.
The workers had been protesting against the lack of proper of arrangements for buses to ferry them to their respective home districts in different parts of Bihar. Uncontrollable and agitated, the migrant workers were outraged beyond limit and thus the police had to resort to lathi-charge. More than twelve migrant workers have sustained injuries after the clash with the police.
This incident has come to light just days after the Bihar government closed down its registration process for quarantining the migrant workers who had returned from different states for 14 days. The government also announced that it will no longer arrange for transport to ferry migrant workers to their home districts.
The decision of the government to allow returnees from other states to freely go back to their home districts has been criticised from different angles and the decision to not quarantine them has raised many eyebrows. The migrant workers arriving after June 1 will not be registered and quarantine centres at the block level will be closed by June 15.
The decision of the government is being condemned by many because not quarantining migrant workers may expose Bihar to greater infection rates and increase the chances of spreading of the infection.
The migrant workers who were lathi-charged at Katihar railway station were angry on being told that buses that would take them to their home districts of Jehanabad and Saran had not been arranged.
This created a ruckus among the migrant workers and they followed it up with a protest against the government inside the railway station premises. The agitation was passed on to the nearby neighbourhood. Due to the protests, the police had to resort to lathi-charge.
Later, the district officials assured the migrant workers of buses to ferry them and they ended the protest. According to the topmost state officials of the state government, over 30 lakh migrant workers have returned to Bihar from other states over the last month due to the lockdown imposed to contain COVID-19. The first batch of stranded migrant workers came to Bihar on May 2.
