Relief for migrants as special train service begins
Bhubaneswar: There was a sense of relief as the Khurda Road-Ahmedabad express special train left Khurda Road at 6.40pm on Saturday. Hundreds of migrant workers had gathered at the station early so that they don’t miss the train that would take them back to their workplaces and a probable job.
Having exhausted their savings and spending months jobless, ever since returning from Surat and other cities in Gujarat, they now want to start earning again, given the responsibilities they have on their shoulders.
It was a similar scene at around 8.35pm when the train reached Berhampur station in Ganjam. This is the district which had received most of the migrant workers, who fled other states to escape the virus and hunger.
The workers said they were returning to their workplace after not getting any job here. “Whatever job we were getting here is not enough to run our family. In fact, we were earning more in the Surat textile industry,” said Sashanka Bhuyan from Belaguntha in Ganjam district.
Bhuyan said he boarded a bus to return home in April-end after the Covid-19 outbreak in Gujarat. “We returned to Odisha thinking that Covid-19 will be over after two or three months. But when we found that the situation is not so different here, we decided to return to the workplace,” said Bhuyan who was earning around Rs 22,000 per month in Surat. He, and nine of his friends, are going back to re-join the same company
Pandab Dakua, also from Ganjam, said he got a call from the company manager asking him to return. “I have been working in a Surat-based garment factory for the last 21 years. My family members are also going with me. The company was arranging a bus for us, but we asked them to book train tickets instead. We are so happy that the government is running trains back to our workplace. The company has given us Rs 1000 each as pocket money for the journey,” Dakua said.
Gautam Swain, from Bhanjanagar in Ganjam said the company has made safety arrangements for workers. “There will be a distance of 10 feet between workers at the textile mill. We will follow Covid guidelines during work. Also, more than four people will not stay together in one room,” said Swain.
The train has stoppages at Berhampur, Rayagada, Kesinga, Titilagarh, Kantabanji and Khariar Road in Odisha. “Only confirmed passengers were allowed to board the special train. Thermal screening on passengers was conducted,” said an East Coast Railway (ECoR) source. The train is scheduled to reach Ahmedabad at 7.25am on Monday.
EoM