ORR junction turns halting station for migrants

Food, transport being arranged for lockdown-hit at Kandlakoya

A colourful shamiana, water tankers, a few toilets, food, drinking water and regular supply of edibles that Good Samaritans keep distributing have turned the Outer Ring Road junction near Kandlakoya into a halting station for migrating workers. “We don’t know where they are coming from. The numbers have not declined. Every day up to 15,000-20,000 people have been passing through this place for the past one month,” says a police officer at the site.

‘First meal’

Getting down from a truck packed with people, Sunil Kumar rushes to the tent. “This will be my first meal of the day,” he says as volunteers serve him rotis, dal, a banana and a packet of buttermilk.

Mr. Kumar finally got onto a bus to Siwan arranged by Mukti Bosco who arranged the passes for transit as well as other approvals needed for the long journey. “We arranged six buses, some of which are going to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The migrant workers don’t have to pay and we arranged the transport, keeping social distancing in mind,” she said.

But for many families and individuals, it is a long wait to find their mode of transport to their home. There are young men who have formed a group and begin negotiating with truck drivers to take them home. Unlike earlier days, there are more families fleeing the cities.

“We will do farming. If we go back to our villages, we have families who will help us. We were hopeful of work restarting after 30 days. But now it looks difficult,” says Shafi Ahmed who used to be engaged in maggam work in the Moula Ali area.

His family waits under the shade of a lorry which will start in the evening to take them home. “I had a biscuit packet for Iftaar. But I think food will also be available here,” says the artisan from Lucknow’s Shahpur area, pointing to the tent where a cartload of bananas were delivered by a businessman.

‘10,000 fed’

“Initially, we struggled. But today, we managed to feed all the 10,000 people passing through this place,” says a volunteer, who helped organise the tents with the help of Medchal civic officials.

Aiding the effort, staffers of Integrated Child Development Services are distributing among children and women packets, which include oral rehydration salt sachets and sanitary napkins.

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