Hyderabad: Passes in hand, but no trains in sight

HYDERABAD: There seems to be no respite in sight for migrant workers in the city, anxiously waiting to return home. Even after being issued train passes, their struggle for basic essentials continues.
At a function hall in Erragadda, TOI met close to a 1,000 workers on a sultry Wednesday afternoon — almost 24 hours after they had gathered there — who had a ‘ticket’ to their villages, but no food or water. Many of the ceiling fans in the hall too were dysfunctional. Worse, none of them sharing the space, had any idea just when they would be allowed to board a train back home. “We came here around 4pm on Tuesday to get a pass. Since then, we have been directed to wait here. We were told that a bus would come to ferry us to the railway station sometime in the evening or night, but nothing has happened so far,” said Osman Khan a worker from Odisha’s Jajpur district, even as dozens of others jumped in to rue how they have been left hungry and parched.
Holding up a small packet of rice, Udaysen Moriya, said it was all that they were given to eat since they got to the function hall on Tuesday afternoon. The 38-year-old from Azamgarh (UP) could barely hold back his tears as he narrated his plight and of those around him. “We are not even being allowed to go out to get food or water. The police are beating us,” said 21-year-old Chanchal Kumar Ray from Bihar, even as Pinku Devi pointed to her two toddlers lying on the floor. They hadn’t had a drop of water in hours.
“We want to go home now; else we’ll fall ill staying under such conditions,” said Minati Jana from West Bengal’s Midnapore district, while her husband — a steward at a city hotel that’s shut indefinitely now — rushed to get some food from a NGO car that had just pulled up with 500 packets of rice and curry.
“My son is differently-abled...I sincerely appeal to the authorities to put us on a train soon,” she added.
According to Sanathnagar police — issuing passes in the area — about 1,300 people were given passes between Tuesday and Wednesday.
“There is no shortage of food...also, we have asked the people to return to their accommodations (not so far from the function hall) and we will pick them up when the trains are arranged,” V C Sajjanar, Cyberabad police