Hundreds of migrants take to the streets in Kolhapur, demand to be sent home

Hundreds of migrants descended upon the Pune-Bengaluru highway in Maharashtra's Kolhapur district, demanding that another special train be arranged to send them back to their home states. The migrants said they had moved out of their quarters, and hence had no other option but to go back home.

Kolhapur (Maharashtra): Hundreds of migrant workers gathered on Pune-Bengaluru Highway in Maharashtra's Kolhapur district on Thursday, demanding that arrangements be made to send them home.

Labourers from Shiroli MIDC, who were stranded since the COVID-19 lockdown was enforced, gathered on the highway to voice their demands, an official said.

The migrants alleged that their employer had paid them their dues and asked them to leave, but due to the lockdown, they are unable to do so.

As the crowd swelled in the area, the police were deployed to convince the protesting labourers to clear out and subsequently the district collector and police superintendent also reached the spot.

Kolhapur DC Daulat Desai and SP Abhinav Deshmukh appealed to the migrants to calm down and tried to convince them that they will be allowed to return to their home states depending on the availability of trains.

Read:642 'Shramik Special' trains run so far, around 8 lakh migrants ferried home

So far, three trains with around four thousand migrant workers have been sent to different states (Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and UP) from Kolhapur. Today, the workers demanded that another train be arranged for them.

Labourers, who were predominantly from Uttar Pradesh, said they wished to head to their hometowns, as they had left their living quarters and did not have work or means to survive the lockdown, the official said.

(With inputs from PTI)