Migrants pine for home as cyclone stalls trains to Odisha, Bengal

With the Indian railways cancelling all West Bengal and Odisha bound trains up to May 22 (Friday) due to cyclone Amphan that made a landfall on Wednesday (May 20), the stranded migrants who were waiting to go home have to brace for some more days.

“All Shramik Express trains to Odisha and West Bengal are cancelled up to May 22. Depending on the cyclonic conditions, we will resume services,” Bengaluru Divisional Railway Manager Ashok Kumar Verma said.

Soon after the announcement of extension of lockdown on May 4, the exodus of migrant workers started with confusion and panic all around. While some were lucky enough to board the trains, many are still stranded at construction project sites, on streets and at government-approved shelters.

The wait due to the cyclone has increased their misery further.

“After 15 days of waiting, I thought I would get a chance to get back home this week. But now, the cyclone has played spoilsport and we are worried for our families,” Shibananda Santra, a migrant worker from Midnapur, stuck at a construction site in Bengaluru said.

“Had the government made arrangements to send us before the lockdown, we would not have come to this emotionally distressed situation,” he said.

Santra adds that getting a train ticket seems to be as difficult as winning a lottery ticket and that he has no choice but to put up with it.

While the estimated number of people from Odisha and Bengal stranded in different cities could not be estimated, the cyclonic alert and train cancellations does not bode well for their families back home.

Another worker, Bikramaditya Roy said he planned to get back and resume work on his farmland. However, he’s now worried that the cyclone may have destroyed his land as many were evacuated from low-lying areas before the landfall.

The railways even cancelled the outbound train from Howrah to other cities.

A report by Gram Vikas, a development organisation, which conducted a survey among 393 migrant workers from Odisha, stranded across South India, showed that while most of the workers continue to be at their usual workplaces with access to food and shelter, 77 per cent of them want to return home.

“Seven weeks of lockdown has made them financially and psychologically drained. Nearly a quarter of the labourers shared that they did not have any money at all left with them. The median amount at disposal was ₹1,900 only,” the report said.

Meanwhile, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday tweeted that Indian Railways will run 200 non-AC timetabled trains on a daily basis from June 1.