Nearly 1L leave NCR, most say they have no more trust

New Delhi/Ghaziabad: 24-year-old Chand Bhushan, a painter in the city for 12 years, while waiting for a bus to Gorakhpur in UP, rued that he had exhausted all his income and will be left with no money once he returns back to his village as he is the sole breadwinner of his family, consisting of his mother and sister.

"Everybody is in fear of the virus and especially after the lockdown, I thought that I should leave the city as no one knows till when it might get extended," he said.

Like Chand, hundreds of migrants continue to flock out of the city to their villages as Delhi goes into a week-long curfew, in fear of "losing their livelihood the way they did during last year's lockdown".

At the Kaushambi Bus Depot here, around 200 buses bound for mostly for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar kept shuttling the area while a sea of migrant workers kept arriving in hordes, trying to find a seat in a bus destined to their native place.

Brijesh (24), who works at a factory and hails from Azamgarh in UP, said that during the lockdown last year, he couldn't go back to his village and was barely able to make ends meet here and doesn't want to be in the same situation again.

A senior officer of Ghaziabad district administration said that till now, over one lakh people from Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Chandigarh and other areas have boarded buses from Ghaziabad to reach their home towns.

"Nearly 77, 000 people have been ferried to their native place in as many as 1, 537 buses including 350 local and 1, 187 roadways buses till early Tuesday morning. The health department is distributing masks to these people while the roadways department is maintaining proper sanitation of depot premises. We are putting all efforts to accommodate these people along with additional support from other bus depots" Ghaziabad DM Ajay Shankar Pandey said.

Pradeep (33), an employee at a power press workshop heading to Sultanpur in UP, said that he doesn't believe the government and said that, "sarkar ka kuch bharosa nahi (One can't trust the government). "Back in our villages we will somehow survive by tending to our fields but here, what will we eat if we don't earn?" he asked.

Meanwhile, those present at the depot said that enough buses weren't available in most instances even as the footfall of migrant workers kept increasing. Many of the people had spent last night at the depot waiting for their bus to arrive.

Some of them also complained of an inefficient enquiry system at the depot, leaving most of them clueless on how and where to find their bus. Out of the total buses stationed there, quite a few of them were air-conditioned buses and were only available for online booking, further making it difficult for a majority of the migrants to book their seats.

In addition to this, large numbers of migrant workers were seen gathering at Delhi's railway stations, also to head back home, where social distancing and Covid precautions were thrown out the window.

At the station, Suraj Kumar from Patna said last year's national lockdown to contain the pandemic had taught him not to trust governments. "No one helped people like us, who dig a well, every day to be able to drink from it. We were left to beg for food," he said.

(With inputs from Krishangi Sinha)