Buses carry migrants from other states, no place for those from Maharashtra

NAGPUR: “Food is available for all of you. It’s free of charge,” announced a volunteer from a microphone at the Ganeshpeth state transport bus stand as groups of migrant workers entered slowly.
The buses were lined up to take them till the check-posts on the Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Chhattisgarh border. Most of them were picked up from highways as they hitchhiked from places like Hyderabad, Pune, Nashik and Mumbai.
As others settled waiting for their turn to board the bus, some equally weary travellers who managed to reach till Nagpur were turned back.
Like workers from MP and Chhattisgarh, Raju Undirwade and four others, too, reached Nagpur by hitchhiking on the highways. Working as security guards at a metro rail site in the city, they left after survival became tough due to the lockdown. The group wanted to go to Bhandara but were not allowed to board buses which were meant only for migrants from other states.
Pragati Nimgade, a student who reached Nagpur, also waited at the bus stop for her kin to pick her up. She had to go to Gadchiroli but there was no bus for her.
“We can’t allow them to use these buses. These special buses will only ply till the inter-state borders,” said an officer in-charge at the station.
Divisional transport officer (DTO) Tanuja Kalmegh told TOI that they had no say in the matter. The MSRTC only went by the list provided by the police.
Most of the workers were heading to Seoni in MP through the Khawasa border followed by Balaghat and other places in Chhattisgarh.
There was a mixed reaction among the lot. While some said they don’t plan to return soon and may even stay back up to a year, there were those who admitted that they would have to head for the cities again.
“I’ll go back and till my land,” said Shankerlal, who was in the queue to board the bus for the MP border. The one-acre farm he has is enough to keep him going, he said. The others in the queue had the same answer. There were others like Tinkaram and Santosh Majhi from Chhattisgarh and Odisha respectively who said that sooner or later they will have to come back in search of work.
There were groups of workers heading further to states like Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Odisha too. Mahendra and his four friends were heading for Sidharthnagar district in UP which borders Nepal. They worked in a factory at Bijapur in Karnataka.
“Let’s see what happens after we reach MP. We don’t plan to come back as there is enough work in the village, though the locals who employ us don’t pay us on time,” said one of them.
A senior official in Seoni district of MP said that buses have been arranged to take such passengers further ahead till borders of neighbouring states. They will be dropped till the UP border form where the state’s government will take over.
“We will have to come back as our children go to schools in Pune. We are leaving because there is no work at present,” said a woman heading for her village in MP.
Dhuleshwar Lanjewar, who runs a hair cutting salon in the city, was out of business after the lockdown and was heading towards Seoni, his native place. A worker in a cement plant at Yavatmal said over 3000 engaged in the unit have already left due to the corona scare.
Meanwhile, near the railway station, another group of workers that had reached Nagpur from Hyderabad, was heading towards Bihar on foot.