The Delhi government has finally started sending back stranded migrants home.
The first batch of migrant workers left the national capital in two trains, one to Madhya Pradesh on Thursday night and the second to Bihar on Friday afternoon.
The first Shramik Special from Delhi left with 1,078 migrant workers. The train departed from the New Delhi Railway Station where the migrants were brought in more than 70 buses.
The second train, destined for Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, left with 1,200 passengers.
Delhi labour minister Gopal Rai tweeted a video saying that the Arvind Kejriwal government will bear the cost for all the passengers.
Many of the migrants are anxious because very little information is flowing to them mostly because officials have not revealed the evacuation plan.
Students from Madhya Pradesh stranded in Delhi since the lockdown started in March have alleged that the Delhi government has kept everyone in the dark.
“Hamein koi information nahi di ja rahi hai. Kabhi yeh mention nahi kiya ki students ke liye bhi train hongi. Government koi information, koi notification toh de. Yeh bhi nahi pata hai kahan se train jayegi (We’re not getting any information. The government never mentioned that there are trains for students as well. It hasn’t released any information, any notification. We don’t even know where the trains would leave from),” said Shri Krishna, a 19-year-old Delhi University student from the state’s Shivpuri district.
Krishna said he and his group of more than 50 students had been struggling to get food even as hostels were pushing for rents. He said he had tried speaking to the district magistrates from different districts but got directed from one official to another.
“Bohot pareshan hain. We just need a train back home,” said Krishna.
A migrant worker stranded in south Delhi feels left out because the government is sending back people who are in government shelter homes. “They don’t allow us to leave our homes. How do I find out how we can get a pass,” said 28-year-old Amarjeet Kumar.
He and his group of more than 50 migrants from Bihar have been trying to find a way home since the announcement. They were told about an online registration form.
“Dilli se ghar wapsi ke liye kripya is link par apne ko register karwa lein (Get yourself registered on this link to go back home from Delhi),” a WhatsApp message doing the rounds reached the migrants. The link, which doesn’t work, is to get registered on Delhi government shelter homes list.
People like Kumar feel they’d be left behind in the city if they don’t get a “pass” arranged soon. But with the government’s failure to reach the migrant population in Delhi and without proper information dissemination in place, many more are likely to be left out in the process.