Twenty-odd migrant workers sold their belongings to buy overpriced old bicycles to return home. They were later forced to sell the two-wheelers at half the price to pay the exorbitant bus fares charged by an unscrupulous government driver to take them home.

The police allegedly acted as middlemen to seal the unfair bus deal for the labourers, who were returning home to eastern Uttar Pradesh from Ambala, Haryana, where they worked for a construction firm.

Sanjay Kumar Singh of Ballia, who worked as an electrician with the firm, said the contractor had forced the group to leave on May 1 saying the company had decided to stop all activities for one year.

“He refused to pay us the wages for March and April. When we said we would die of hunger on our way home, he suggested we sell off our belongings to him,” Sanjay, who expects to reach home on Tuesday, told reporters at Unnao on Monday.

“The contractor estimated the combined cost of my LPG cylinder, stove, table fan, cot, table and bed at Rs 7,000. He gave me Rs 2,000 in cash and an old bicycle as the equivalent of Rs 5,000.”

Sanjay said the contractor made similar deals with all the 20-odd labourers. By May 7, the group had pedalled 350km to reach Amroha in western Uttar Pradesh.

But the police stopped them at Gajraula in Amroha, forcing them to spend three days on the roadside, surviving on bread and biscuits.

“The police said they couldn’t let us ride on the highway as the state government had asked migrants to stay put till buses could be arranged for them. On Sunday (May 10) morning, however, they told us a bus would leave for eastern Uttar Pradesh in the afternoon,” Sanjay said.

It was a government bus but not one officially assigned to ferry migrants home, he said. Obviously, the driver was trying to make a killing.

“The driver demanded between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,500 for trips to Allahabad, Varanasi, Mirzapur and Ballia. Most of us had less than Rs 2,000 in our pockets,” Sanjay said.

The government buses assigned to drive migrant workers home are charging the normal fare, which would have been between Rs 500 and Rs 600.

“Some of the policemen suggested we sell our bicycles to them and to local villagers for Rs 2,500. We did and got on the bus,” Sanjay said.

There weren’t enough buyers for 20-odd bicycles, though. Those labourers who couldn’t sell their bicycles had to leave them on the roadside “because the police wouldn’t allow them to be carried on the roof of the bus”, Sanjay said.

Amroha district magistrate Umesh Mishra denied the migrants had been forced to sell their bicycles to pay the bus fare. “We have received complaints that some roadways staff refused to load the bicycles onto the roof. The bus had no roof rack; however, we are looking into it,” he said.

“We have asked officials of the nagar palika to take care of the bicycles the workers left behind, and hand them back whenever they return and demand them.”