Buses carrying migrant workers from Haryana return from Saharanpur border

A number of buses arranged by the Haryana government for ferrying migrant workers to different parts of Uttar Pradesh had to return to this district on Sunday as those walking homes thronged the Saharanpur highway.

Officials here said there were reports that a number of migrant labourers had thronged the Saharanpur highway. The buses were brought back to Yamunanagar as there were apprehensions that they may get stuck due to law and order problems arising at the border, they said.

Necessary arrangements for the food and stay of the migrants have been made and they will soon be sent back to their native places, the officials said.

In the last two days, thousands of migrant labourers were sent from Yamunanagar to different parts of Uttar Pradesh, particularly western UP.

Haryana has been sending those migrant workers in buses who are from neighbouring areas including western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir UT and Himachal Pradesh while 'Shramik Special' trains carry the workers to far off places like Bihar, other parts of UP, Madhya Pradesh and other states.

In Chandigarh, a state government spokesman said 1,60,300 migrant labourers have so far been sent to their native states through buses and the Shramik trains. The cost of their journey is being borne by the Haryana government, he said.

So far 75,600 migrant labourers have been sent from Haryana to Uttar Pradesh, he said.

Meanwhile, a day after police here used mild force to disperse a group of migrant labourers who had blocked the national highway demanding that they be sent back to their native states, Haryana's Home Minister Anil Vij said he has directed state DGP to ask the district police chiefs to depute a senior official to handle the situation if it turns volatile and restrain from using force against the migrants.