Bound for Jammu, stranded just over halfway along in Noida

GREATER NOIDA: Exhausting every last bit of money they had, 14 migrant workers pooled enough to reserve seats on a private bus that promised to take them home in Jammu and Udhampur from Pune. But just two-thirds along the 2,000-km journey, the bus driver abandoned them. The bus could go no further, he said, before taking off.
“On June 2, we were told trains have started for people like us. However, when we reached the railway station, there were no north-bound trains that day. So we talked to a private bus driver, who asked for Rs 5,000 per person,” said Nekram, one of the 14 workers who work at a private company in Pune. They pooled all the money they had and paid the conductor Rs 78,000 — the Rs 70,000 fare and a little more for “overheads”.
The bus took a long and winding route — passing Indore, Gwalior, Aligarh. But on Thursday, the bus stopped abruptly around 10.30pm. “The driver and conductor asked use to step off. We retaliated. They only said that Delhi has sealed its border and they did not have a permit to go beyond,” said Prakash, another worker.
The bus had 23 other passengers from Uttar Pradesh, most of whom were from Bareilly. After dropping them off, the bus headed along the Yamuna Expressway towards Agra.
With no money and no means to get anywhere else, they spent the night at Pari Chowk metro station. When police chanced upon them, they gave them some food. But help came in the morning.
“I got a call from a student in Jammu and Kashmir whom I had helped get home last month. He told me these men had been stranded,” said Savita Sharma, a social worker. She has been helping migrant workers with food and transport for the past two months. By afternoon, an administration official had sent a vehicle to get them moved to a shelter in Sector 135.
“Sometimes it’s just about putting people in touch. I have been able to secure the return of 300 people just by connecting them to the governments of their home state or administrations of their home district,” said Sharma.
District magistrate Suhas LY said an FIR will be filed against the bus driver once the vehicle is identified in CCTV footage from Yamuna Expressway. “I have asked the ADM (enforcement) to arrange for a bus home and not wait for train reservations.”