New Delhi: On Sunday, a day after thousands of migrant workers poured at the Anand Vihar bus terminus on the Delhi-UP border to reach back to their villages, hundreds attempted to leave again but were stopped by police barricades some distance from the bus stand.
“They are beating people who try to move further. I am here with my wife and 11-year-old son and we can’t afford to be beaten up by the police. Now we have only one option — go back to our home in Shahdara’s Vishwas Nagar area,” Bhura Singh said.
Many people were also seen trying to walk on the railway track at Anand Vihar to go to their home towns in Uttar Pradesh.
Since the nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24 to deal with the coronavirus epidemic, all business and economic activity has come to a virtual standstill, leaving migrant workers with no work. Most of them are daily wage earners who live a hand to mouth existence in big cities, and cannot afford to pay rent or buy food unless they earn.
“If police open the borders, we can walk all the way to Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh some 100 kilometers away. Due to this lockdown, my work got affected. For the past one week, I have had nothing to do. I sell fruits, for which I have to go to Ghazipur mandi and the police are not allowing us to go there.
“I live in a rented accommodation and it will become very difficult for us to give rent and bear our daily expenses. We can somehow manage these things in Moradabad,” Singh said.
On Saturday, thousands of daily wagers and labourers from Delhi, Haryana and even Punjab reached Anand Vihar, Ghazipur and Ghaziabad’s Lal Kuan areas after arduous treks on foot in a bid to ride buses to their respective native places.
According to police, around 10,000 to 15,000 people had assembled at Anand Vihar on Saturday. Around 60 to 70 buses ferried as many passengers as they could. Till midnight, around 500 more buses were supposed to reach Delhi and evacuate the migrant workers.
However, there is no clarity on how many were actually sent on the buses and how many were dispersed by police.
By Sunday morning, the area had been cleared and Delhi police said no transit is being allowed from Anand Vihar bus terminus. Instead barricades were placed on all entry points into the terminus at a distance of about 500 meters.
Mohammad Anwar (30), who works in a boutique, said he came to Delhi two weeks ago from Sitamarhi in Bihar and had no idea that the situation would turn like this.
“I am alone here in the national capital. My parents live in Sitamarhi. Police are not allowing us to catch a bus. My health is not well and I can’t walk to Sitamarhi. I have no other option and will go back to my room in east Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar area,” Anwar said.
The distance between Delhi to Sitamarhi is 950 kilometers, which would take around four days to cover on foot.
The death toll from COVID-19 climbed to 25 and the total number of cases to 979 on Sunday.
“The situation for the daily labourers like us is becoming worse day by day as we have lost our source of income. We do not have money for rent and food. During the coronavirus, the government is asking people to maintain social distancing. The situation in shelter homes is even more pathetic and we do not want to go there,” said Mohammad Imran, 25, a native of Azamgarh in U.P
