Migrant Workers Again Protest in Surat Demanding Return to Their Home States Amid Lockdown, Over 50 Arrested
Migrant workers, stranded because of the coronavirus lockdown, once again staged a protest in Surat on Saturday, demanding to be returned to their home states.
Surat, May 9: Migrant workers, stranded because of the coronavirus lockdown, once again staged a protest in Surat on Saturday, demanding to be returned to their home states. This time, migrant labourers took to the street in Hazaria industrial area and asked authorities to facilitate their travel. Subsequently, police rushed to the spot and took over 50 persons in custody. Cops also dispersed the crowd. Gujarat: Labourers Protest, Pelt Stones at Office of Diamond Bourse in Surat, Demand They Be Sent Home.
"At around 8 am today, around 500-1000 people gathered here demanding they be sent back to their respective states. Reasonable force was used, around 55-60 were arrested and around 50-60 have also been detained," D N Patel, Surat Joint Commissioner of Police, told news agency ANI. Around half a dozen such incidents have been reported in Surat in the past few weeks. On May 7, workers from Odisha staged a demonstration in Surat when the Naveen Patnaik government cancelled trains.
On April 28, migrant labourers in Surat ransacked the Diamond Bourse office, vandalising vehicles and also tried to attack a police vehicle after some workers were hired from outside. Around 4,000 construction labourers, working at the site of Diamond Bourse in Surat's Khajod area on Tuesday, were infuriated against the site management, who had hired around 40 labourers from outside Surat. Migrant Workers Don't Need to Go Home During Lockdown, Their Needs Being Addressed: Centre Tells SC.
Stranded Workers Protest in Surat:
Stranded migrants had come on the roads in Surat in the second week of April as well. Similar protests by migrant workers were seen in other states too. A large crowd had gathered out the Bandra railway station, defying the lockdown, when rumours went viral that train services had resumed.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 09, 2020 01:33 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).