Haryana: Homeless, migrants spend night outside police station

ROHTAK: Over 100 migrant labourers, including women and children, from Madhya Pradesh were forced to spend the night under open sky outside a police station here, after being called on Tuesday on the assurance of sending them back to their home state.
Bhajan Lal, one of those spending the night in the ground, said labourers living in different colonies under Shivaji Nagar police station of the district were called, saying they would be sent to Madhya Pradesh by train.
“Around 105 labourers, including women and children, reached the police station with their luggage in the hope of boarding train to their state. But, late in the evening, police officials told us to come on Wednesday,” he said.
Since they were told that they would be boarding the train, they also vacated their rented accommodations. As they did not have a place to return to, they had to spend the night outside the police station.
Pawan Kumar, another labourer, said the police officials neither let them enter the police station nor arranged any accommodation like shelter home for them.
He said when they requested for food, they were denied even that by the police officials. “We spent the whole night under open sky, along with minor children and women, battling with mosquitoes on the kutcha ground outside police station,” he added.
They said that they also tried to approach the deputy commissioner, but the guards on duty at his residence chased them away without listening to their grievances.
However, Shivaji Nagar station house officer inspector Balwan Singh claimed that the labourers were given food at night and asked to go back to their rented accommodations for one night, but they refused to budge and spent the night outside the police station.