Hundreds of migrant laborers gathered here at the railway station and demanded that they be sent to their respective states immediately. They flocked to the railway station knowing that the Karnataka government would run special trains to send them to the home state, whereas most of these laborers are from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. The laborers stayed at the station and refused to leave, despite an appeal from the police.
Police quoted the migrant laborers as saying that they were stranded in the city without jobs, money and enough food. If special trains are not run immediately, they will go to their home state by foot. The Karnataka government on Thursday decided to run special trains from May 8 to send laborers to their homes and sought approval from nine states for this. They were told that Karnataka will run two trains a day to these states by May 15 to carry thousands of migrant laborers stranded in the city and other districts due to the lockdown imposed to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
This step has been taken when the government withdrew its request to run special train for migrants two days ago. They withdrew it within hours after requesting it on Tuesday, earlier, eight special trains were run for the migrant laborers from Bengaluru.
