West Bengal: Hundreds stuck in Howrah station

KOLKATA: The Bengal government stepped in on Wednesday to transfer hundred of passengers from Assam, Tripura and Jharkhand, who reached Howrah station but were stranded due to lockdown. Three buses have already left with passengers on Wednesday evening while another is expected to leave soon for Jharkhand.
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Since Monday night, over 400 people have been stranded at the station with nowhere to go.They have been living around the station. Howrah district administration had been trying to shift them but could not do so due to lack of transport. These people have been stranded ever since the lockdown began on Monday.
“On Tuesday night, we saw hundreds of people living below the sheds beside the taxi stands. Though most of them are from Assam and Tripura, some are also from UP and Bihar. They had nowhere to go since the train service had stopped,” said a railway official. The official added some of them had tried to get help from their respective state offices — Assam Bhavan and Tripura Bhavan — but were not entertained.
Another senior official of Howrah district administration said they had informed the transport department for arranging buses so they can be taken to some other place to reduce congestion in the station complex. “We had been providing food to the stranded people on humanitarian grounds,” said the official. He added they are contacting Nabanna officials for help and heard the administration was planning to shift them to a stadium soon.
A senior railway police officer said around 60,000 people came from outside the state on Sunday and Monday. Many among them could not reach their destinations. As the gates of Howrah station were locked, they started living under the sheds outside the station complex.