Migrant workers trying to cycle to Assam stopped by police

Desperate to reach their home during the COVID-19 lockdown, five migrant workers from Assam set out from here on their bicycles hoping to pedal the over 3500-km journey to the north-eastern state, but were stopped by police.

The police team, on night patrol, stopped thefive in their 20s at Chadayamangalam in Kollam, nearly 65 km from Thiruvananthapuram on Friday night.

"They desperately wanted to go home as it was quite some time since they met their kith and kin", a police officer said.

They had aroute map and planned to go via Tirunelveli and Chennai.

The police official said since they suspected the guest workers might have entered state from an area bordering Tamil Nadu, they sent them for 14 days observation.

The workers did not carry any travel pass for their destination,the officer told PTI.

The health and revenue authorities were immediately informed and theworkers were sent on 14 days quarantine at a centre near Kottarakara.

"We told them there will be trains to Assam and they can board them either from Kollam or the state capital once they complete the quarantine," the official said.

Recently, some workers had tried to walk all the way from Kannur to Bihar while some other workers had taken out protest marches demanding trains for their respective home states.

At least 3.60 lakh workers had been put up in 20,826 camps in the southern state and 99 per cent of them, hailing from West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, had wanted to return to their respective states.

Instead of providing just basic necessities such as food and accommodation for the workers, the state government had also made available televisions, carrom, chess boards in the camps for entertainment and even recharged their mobile phones so that they could keep in touch with their families.

With the Shramik Special trains being introduced, many of the workers have returned to their home states.