Hours after Director-General of Police M. Mahender Reddy announced an e-pass initiative to help stranded persons return to their home States, the Tolichowki area here on Sunday saw hordes of migrant workers coming onto the roads seeking travel permission.
The workers were not able to get any such immediate permission for inter-State travel since they did not have private transport. They demanded that the government make arrangements to send them back to their native places.
Police officials reached the areas swarmed by migrant workers and tried to pacify them, promising food and other help as long as they are here. “We assured to provide them groceries and other essential commodities. We gave them food and water, before sending them back to their dwellings,” said Hyderabad Joint Commissioner of Police (West) A.R. Srinivas.
He said 1,000-odd construction workers, daily wage labour and petty vendors who used to sell food stuff on the roadside before the lockdown, came out of their dwellings around 9.30 a.m., and gathered on Tolichowki streets. They were dispersed within a few hours.
Mr. Srinivas, using a public address system, asked the migrants to reach their respective police stations and leave their details, including phone numbers, current location and destination, so that the list could be sent to the State government for suitable arrangements for their transport.
Most of the migrant workers were from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal.
Long queues
Late on Saturday, hundreds of migrant workers had gathered outside Jubilee Hills and Banjara Hills police stations for passes. However, the police explained the process to them and sent them back to their dwellings.
Meanwhile, many others stranded in Telangana made a beeline at police stations across the three urban Commissionerates — Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda — as the e-pass dashboard failed. These inter-State travel permission seekers included students, IT employees from other States, and youngsters whose families reside outside of Telangana or Hyderabad limits.
Police officials issued passes to all applicants who had their documents in order, including those who sought intra-State travel. People seeking to reach their families in other districts in Telangana were also around 1,000 in number, police said.
“I have been stuck here for over a month now. I was told the police were issuing passes and I came here to submit my details and get one,” said Ravi Teja from Visakhapatnam who was waiting for his turn at Gachibowli police station. He had come to Hyderabad for coaching after completing his engineering.