Hundreds of migrant workers and their families rushed to bus stands across the city to head back home after the state government announced restrictions till May 30.
At the Esplanade bus terminus, a large crowd gathered from Saturday afternoon with their bags packed. Many carrying headloads were headed home to Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, Malda, Balurghat, Siliguri and Patna, among others.
A private bus headed for Jalangi in Murshidabad had many sitting on its roof, their legs precariously dangling over the roof rail.
At the Babughat bus stand, long queues were spotted in front of bus operators’ kiosks.
Those who got tickets made a mad scramble for the parked buses because they were told they had to occupy seats to ensure no one else would.
Jitender Tiwari,a private bus operator who had three buses leave for Hazaribagh and Patna, said that it was an unprecedented rush. “There was a huge rush and fights broke out among the passengers over jumping queues. We tried our best to accommodate as many as we could, but we could not give tickets to many as the buses have a limited seating capacity. Many volunteered to travel on the roofs and we could not refuse them,” he said.
In Salt Lake’s Karunamoyee Bus stand, too, many stood for hours to book tickets for government buses headed to Asansol, Durgapur and Burdwan, among others.
Many of those leaving were people who worked at construction sites, small factories, as apprentices of mechanics and domestic help.
All of them apprehended that the restrictions would continue beyond the initial fortnight. The chorus at nearly all the bus stands was: “We don’t want to be stranded.”
Many said they were particularly wary after their experience of last year’s lockdown, when they had suddenly found themselves out of jobs and were forced to ride bicycles back home or pay hefty sums to book cars and small buses .
Mohammed Faiyaz Sheikh, 28, a construction worker who was working at a building site in New Town, reached the Esplanade bus stand around 2.30pm.
Sheikh, who hails from Malda and works as a mason, used to get Rs 250 per day besides food and lodging from the contractor.
“This time, the contractor told us clearly that there will be no pay for no work and we have to clear the site as he will not be able to pay for our food as well. But he has cleared our dues and we came straight here after collecting our wages,” he said.
Sheikh had been stuck in the city last year at a construction site, he said. “We could return home only after we managed to hire a small mini bus that cost us a lot. We had to do it as we were finding it difficult to find food as the contractor had said that he could no longer pay for our daily food bills,” he said.
He said that the entire time that they were in New Town, they had to depend on food supplied by the police, the New Town Kolkata Development Authority and local residents’ groups.
At the Karunamoyee bus stand, Sagari Halder, 34, a resident of Muraroi in Burdwan, who worked as a full-time domestic help in a Salt Lake home, was waiting to buy a ticket for a government bus.
“My employers had already asked me not to come since the past couple of months. I used to get Rs 12,000 a month. I had then started working in other houses as a part-time help and was earning around Rs 7,000. I decided to head home as I don’t know long the lockdown will continue. I am not sure that I will remain employed during the period, either. All the houses where I worked have told me that I will not get paid if I don’t go to work. Last year, I had got stuck and even though I have a son who is in school and I need the money, it is better to be home right now,” said Halder.
Bidhan Hazra, who used to work as two-wheeler mechanic’s apprentice, said that he used to earn Rs 150 per day apart from getting money for food from his employer. “He said that he will have to keep his workshop shut and he will n longer be able to afford me. I decided to head home instead of being stuck here with no money,” said Hazra, who stays near Durgapur.
Many workers this newspaper spoke to on Saturday said that they had somehow managed to find a means of livelihood and were barely back on their feet. Many said that they had taken loans.
“Another round of prolonged restrictions will deal a death blow to us,” said Sahidul Biswas, 36, who works in a small hosiery manufacturing unit in Hatibagan.