At Shastri Nagar in Jaipur Monday. The migrants, who clashed with police, belong to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar. (Photo: Rohit Jain Paras)

Migrant labourers living in Nahri Ka Naka area of Jaipur’s Shastri Nagar, who are stranded amidst the coronavirus lockdown, hit the streets on Monday, complaining about lack of rations and the means to go back home. After they were dispersed by police, several protestors claimed that they were beaten up; the authorities, however, maintained that no force was used.

Read| An older injustice

Rezaul Karim, a migrant from Malda, West Bengal, said, “In the past one month, we haven’t received much ration and have run out of money. Today, we decided to take to the streets and ask the administration to give us food and find means to go home. If we get permission, we are also ready to walk the whole way. Instead, the police drove us out and several of us sustained injuries in police action.”

Karim claimed thousands of migrants live in the Nahri Ka Naka area and during the lockdown, they have lost all their savings.

Mohammed Jaliluddin, who also hails from Malda and works as a construction labourer in Jaipur, claimed he was not even part of the protest but was still beaten up.

“I was not part of the protest… I had gone to a nearby shop to purchase some jaggary for breaking my Ramzan fast in the evening when the police charged on protesting migrants. I got hit by their sticks too and had to be later taken to the hospital to get bandaged,” he said.

However, the police denied that they used force.

“There was no lathicharge and the police didn’t beat up any migrants. After the police van arrived, some of the migrant labourers started running and ended up injuring themselves after trying to jump police barricades… There were around 400-500 people and we have passed on their demand for ration to officials,” said Sajjan Singh Kaviya, station house officer, Shastri Nagar police station.

Kaviya added that no arrests were made and no case has been filed over the protests.