Hyderabad: Migrants see curfew precursor to lockdown

Hyderabad: With the surge in the second strain of Covid-19, the Telangana government on Tuesday announced night curfew till April 30. Following which the hundreds of migrant workers lined up at bus terminals and railway stations in the City, just like last year.

Suspecting another lockdown after the announcement of night curfew, hundreds of migrant workers were seen leaving for their hometown from the Central Bus Station in Imlibun, Jubilee Bus Station and were also seen at Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Kachiguda railway stations to return home to their towns in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha and Chhattisgarh respectively.

Migrants claimed that the only reason to depart from Hyderabad even before the announcement of lockdown was, "We do not want to get stuck here with no job, no money, and food".

Ajay Kholse, a migrant worker who was waiting for the train at Hyderabad railway station, said, "I was staying in Nizamabad and I'm a construction worker, 'Corona Ke dar se nahi, phir se dubara lockdown na hojaye isi dar se ghar ja rahe hai, bhuk, chat aur bina paise ke marna nahi chahte,' (I am not scared of corona but am scared of lockdown, I don't want to die here with no money, food, and shelter).

Another migrant worker says if a lockdown is imposed in Telangana, then I will be stuck here forever, so that is the reason I along with my family are leaving to our hometown in Madhya Pradesh.

Krishna Yadav, another migrant worker who was waiting at Imlibun bus station to return home in Odisha along with his two daughters said, "I was working in a brick factory in Bhadrachalam, due to fear of another lockdown we are leaving to our home today."

When asked how he will go, Yadav replied somehow with the help of local transport we came from Bhadrachalam to Hyderabad, so that's how we will manage to go to Odisha, he said.

The helpless migrants also feared dying of Covid here in the city without family and friends.

Another migrant worker at Secunderabad railway station, Praveen said, "If something happens to me in my home town at least my family members will be there for me. As soon as I heard about the night curfew from 9 pm, I immediately started from Bhongir to Hyderabad so that I could catch a train to Bihar."