Migrant workers from West Bengal, eager to go home, are getting restless while waiting for the Shramik Special trains to resume after these were suspended following the devastation caused by cyclone Amphan in their home state.
West Bengal has requested the Railways to suspend the Shramik Special train services since district administrations are busy with relief and rehabilitation work and would be unable to attend to the special trains carrying migrant workers from various other states.
The problem has been compounded because majority of the workers are unable to communicate with the authorities due to language constraints and hence not able to grasp why they are being left out when labourers hailing from other states are going back home in Shramik Special trains.
Although NGOs have been providing dry rations to the migrant workers who have already registered with the police to go back to West Bengal they are in a quandary with no train scheduled to leave for their home state for almost a week now.
Nearly 130 labourers from Malda and the adjoining areas have been waiting for the special trains to West Bengal and are practically living under trees even as Telangana is experiencing a severe heat wave.
A local NGO, Babul have organised dry rations for them but the migrants are clearly apprehensive about their future.
“Some of us came for two months to work in construction but because of the lock down we were forced to stay back and work for two more months. They did not even pay us money for the extra two months work. After a lot of persuasion the contractor paid us only Rs800 which is very less. We now want to go back home. We did the paper work (registered) with the police but now they told us to go from here as there are no trains to Bengal. Where do we go now?”said a woman construction worker staying in Gacchibowli area.
Another mason Rezawul Islam said: “Now this NGO Babu is providing us food today but we don’t know how long they will continue to feed us. What will happen to us? We want to go home. But they are saying there are no trains.”
Gangadhar Pandey, heading the NGO Babul admitted that after two months of feeding migrant workers during the lock down they too are unable to sustain their initiative due to want of resources.
Meanwhile, several organisations headed by the local Bengali community are raising funds for relief and rehabilitation of those affected by cyclone Amphan.
The Hyderabad chapter of Jadavpur University Alumni Association has raised Rs 1.5 lakh within a day and donated the amount to Bharat Sevashram Sangha for initial relief work.
“Bharat Sevashram Sangha has informed us that they have started providing food and other necessities to those staying in relief camps in Kakdwip in West Bengal after their homes were ravaged in the cyclone. Many of our members are also donating individually to the chief minister’s relief fund and other initiatives to help those who have been so badly affected by the cyclone,” said Debashis Basu on behalf of the Hyderabad chapter.
Another organisation, Bengalis in Hyderabad are also raising funds for the required relief work.