Migrants de-boarding midway headache for govt

Bhubaneswar: Cases of migrant workers getting down from Shramik Special trains by pulling chains in places other than scheduled stoppages during the past three days have become a headache for the local administrations. “Workers should get down at the designated stations instead of alighting from trains elsewhere. The government has arranged health screening facility at particular railway stations before taking them to quarantine centres.They violate government rules by getting down from the train midway,” said the officer.
As many as 305 migrant workers got down at Kantabanji station in Balangir district by allegedly pulling the chain of the train on Monday, said a railway official. The train was travelling from Gandhidham in Gujarat to Nergundi in Cuttack district. The incident happened around 4.50am.
Police said the migrant workers who got off the train belong to Nuapada, Balangir and Kalahandi districts. “They might have discussed among themselves against travelling to Cuttack. Though it is not clear, we suspect somebody from the group pulled the chain to stop the train, and disembarked to reach their homes faster or escape quarantine,” said a senior police officer.
Kantabanji police immediately reached the station and asked them to go to their respective quarantine centres. With the help of the local administration, they were taken to quarantine centres after health screening, police said. Two similar cases were reported between Balugaon and Chhatrapur stations on Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday, around 400 migrant workers got off a train at Chilka station near Balugaon in Khurda district. The train, coming from Namburu in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh was supposed to stop at Khurda Road station. As most of the migrants belong to Ganjam district, they pulled the chain and got down, said police. Later the Railway Protection Force (RPF) detained them at the station and informed local police and administration. Finally, they were taken to their respective quarantine centres.
On Sunday, around 100 migrant workers had alighted from the Hyderabad-Khurda Road Shramik Special train near Chhatrapur station in Ganjam district. The RPF detained 60 of them. Later, local police searched for others and sent all to quarantine centres in their areas. Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, additional chief secretary, health and family welfare department, said people should not violate the quarantine rules.