Margao: Shramik Special Train No. 05058 carrying 1337 passengers left Margao railway station for Nergundi, Odisha at 9 pm, it almost brought to a close a massive exercise of moving stranded migrant workers in Goa, a month-long exercise, fraught with pain and misery.
Even the last departure were not without turmoil and tension.
The authorities insisted that all the migrants in the shelter homes have left. The Additional Collector COVID Surendra Dessai said, "Today, 1337 migrants have left for their native state. No more migrants are left in the shelter home at Fatorda stadium".
All the migrants who were still stranded in Goa and willing to go to their native places reported to the Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Fatorda. The train will go to Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar to drop off all the migrants to their native states.
However, Nupura Hautamuki, one of those who have been part of a team of volunteers spearheading a humanitarian effort to help the migrants with food, water and basic amenities besides helping them with the complex task of getting themselves registered, to finally getting them on the train and making their journey comfortable was a little circumspect. She told Herald, “The train on Wednesday was only for Odisha, Jharkhand, Bengal, Bihar, UP, MP, and Chattisgarh. But there were a few workers from other states waiting to go home. We don't quite know if they were or will be on other trains or buses, or sent back to the stadium.”
It may be recalled that the Supreme Court on June 9, 2020, had directed all the States to help stranded migrant workers to reach their home state within 15 days.
The Goa government has thus far sent 84,283 stranded migrant workers in 60 trains. Last week, around 6000 migrant workers were still left in Goa. Around 4000 of these workers have been sent in three trains last week, before the last one today. Many stranded workers have been sent by regular trains after booking special tickets for them.
Nupura Hautamaki, narrated some of the struggles of the final lot of migrants. On the night of June 21, a group of 35 workers and their families which included women, three months old infants, and many children under eight were taken from the Fatorda shelter home to Margao station around midnight. When they reached the station, they were told that the tickets issued to them by the South Goa Collector Ajit Roy's office were waitlisted and they would not be allowed on the train. "Considering that train charts get made at least 4 hours before departure, we don't know why they were sent to the station in the 1st place in the middle of the night," asked Nupura.
"The 14 workers for Uttarakhand that left on the train the night before, were again sent without food or water. Our volunteers reached out to multiple volunteer groups across the country to get food and water to them at stations throughout the journey," she complained.
Goa government officials however, confirmed that all migrants have now been sent with proper arrangements made for them.