Relief, hope as 600 from UP begin ride back home

By Times of India – Relief, hope as 600 from UP begin ride back home Gurgaon: Each of the last 30 days, home for 26-year-old Farhan Khan existed only in his longing for his family. From the steel plant in Jodhpur where he worked, Khan started walking to his hometown in Muradabad a month back. After covering 150km, he paid a trucker Rs 1,800, a major part of the money he was carrying, to reach Gurgaon where he was stopped because of the lockdown restrictions, and kept at a relief centre in Sohna for the rest of the days. On Sunday, when he was finally getting into a bus arranged by the state government to take him and 600 other workers to their hometown in Uttar Pradesh, he could barely find words to describe the feeling. “I do not think anything else could match the happiness of being able to go back home right now,” was all he could manage. On Friday, the UP government rolled out a nationwide operation, starting with Haryana, to bring back their residents stranded across the country. Haryana drew up a list of 11,822 workers wanting to return, and based on this, five bus stations were set up in UP. The 25 others boarding the same bus looked tired but could not conceal their relief at being able to go home. “We called our family back home and informed them that we are on our way. Everyone is eagerly waiting. There is no bigger comfort than being with your family in difficult times. Last month has been a struggle for all of us,” said Jyoti Dubey, 22, who works for an export company in Manesar. She, along with her parents and brother, was headed back to Etawah where the rest of their family lives. The workers had no complaints about their stay here in Gurgaon. “All the time that we were at the centre, we were treated well. The people over there were like our family members in these difficult times,” said Amjad Khan, a craftsman who was put up at a camp in the district when he was trying to walk to UP from Jaipur. In the relief camps across the district, around 900 migrant workers have been living ever since the lockdown robbed them of their livelihoods. On Saturday evening, the district administration transported around 20 of them to Uttarakhand and Punjab in two buses, and on Sunday, another 19 buses left for different parts of Uttar Pradesh. With this, around 300 workers from states farther away like Bihar, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh are left behind at the relief centres. Although there are no orders yet, as per a government official, to transport people to these states, Sunday’s development came as a ray of hope for the thousands still stuck. “Our survival here is becoming very difficult. Every day, we worry about the next meal. If the government can send us back home, we will be grateful for our entire life,” said Rajesh, a migrant worker from UP stuck in Behrampur Khatola. GMDA Chief VS Kundu told TOI, “These workers have been sent home as per orders from the state government. Around 12,000 workers from the entire state are going back home.” DownloadThe Times of India News App for Latest City NewsSubscribeStart Your Daily Mornings with Times of India Newspaper! Order Now

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