Hundreds of migrant workers gathered at the Mangaluru Central Railway Station on Friday morning demanding trains to take them to their homes. The workers were from Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh, district officials in Dakshina Kannada stated.
Over 500 workers gathered at the railway station early on Friday morning. They walked to the railway station from areas like Surathkal, Nanthoor, Kulur and Derebail nearby. According to police officials in Dakshina Kannada, the workers included construction labourers, barbers, helpers at hotels, malls and people who worked with small businesses.
Dakshina Kannada Assistant Commissioner Madan Mohan arrived on the spot to pacify the workers, who informed officials that they were willing to walk long distances if trains were not arranged for them.
"We managed to convince them to return to their residence by the afternoon. They had gathered there to travel to Bengaluru by train hoping to board one of the trains arranged for interstate travel of migrant workers," Dakshina Kannada SP BM Laxmi Prasad told TNM.
A majority of the workers who had gathered were from Jharkhand. Police officials showed the workers a tweet by Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren stating that train services to Karnataka will be arranged soon. The workers, after discussion with officials, agreed to return to their residences.
On Thursday, the Karnataka government re-started train service to ferry migrant workers back to their homes from the state. Four trains - two of them leaving to Uttar Pradesh, one each to Bihar and Jharkhand, were announced on Friday with 1200 workers on board each train. The workers paid full ticket fares to travel back to their homes.