Goa: Tensions rise at migrant shelters as numbers swell, cops lose control

PANAJI: After an agonising wait for 80 days, Akkramul Mulla heard there was a train heading to West Bengal. Quickly, he packed up his meagre belongings and, with his brothers, headed from Calangute to the Bambolim athletic stadium. Once there, he was told there was no place for him on the train. Then, Goa police personnel showed up, abused Mulla, and destroyed his phone.
At the Bambolim stadium and elsewhere, state authorities are grappling with migrant workers and stranded persons who show up outside stading areas and railway stations. The workers, driven by panic and with barely anything to eat, are not only left without tickets for the train, but also have to deal with excesses by officials.
State authorities select individuals tor travel based on the districts and villages that they are belong to, and then send an SMS to those selected for travel. However, those who get the SMS, in their excitement, also inform their friends, who also gather at the railway station or staging area where the passengers assemble.
“A few days ago, the police came and took some people,” Mulla said. “We went to search for them, and found out they would be getting on a train to West Bengal. We hired a bus to drop us to Bambolim stadium at 12:30 midnight.”
‘Police arrived in car, beat us up, broke my phone’
He was among 250-300 persons who showed up outside the Bambolim stadium even as buses departed with passengers for trains to Bihar and West Bengal.
With a capacity of only 1,200-1,500, Mulla and his relatives could not be accommodated on the train. “They told us that the train is full and they can’t let us in,” Mulla said. “Suddenly the police came in a car, started abusing us, and beat us up. They broke my phone.”
Mulla is just of many driven to depair. In Bicholim, Rohit Biswas, who works as a daily-wage worker, hired a taxi in the hope of catching a train, but admits he didn’t receive an SMS. “I will stay somewhere nearby till I get the message,” said Biswas, explaining that he had cleared out the rented premises he shared with five other labourers.
A government official admitted that the state often struggles to handle the migrant workers who show up outside railway stations and stadiums just as a train is scheduled.
“The extra people are taken to shelter homes or they are guided to come later,” the official said. “I have got calls from people asking to be put on the train because their friends are on the train.”