3,000 migrant workers going on foot stuck at Maha-Guj border

Mumbai: Over 3,000 migrant workers from Gujarat and Rajasthan, currently working in the Mumbai metropolitan region, who started walking back to their native places, got stranded at a village in Maharashtra's Palghar district as the border has been sealed by the states amid the lockdown, police said.

These people, who work in parts of Mumbai, Boisar, Virar, Vasai, Vashi and other adjoining places, got stranded in Acchad village in Talasari taluka of Palghar on Friday, police said.

After hours of efforts by the district and police authorities, they finally returned to their places in the Mumbai metropolitan region, they added.

According to police, these people had started their journey to Rajasthan and Gujarat on foot as no transport facility was available due to the ongoing lockdown. The governments in Maharashtra and Gujarat have sealed their borders due to the lockdown.

"More than 3,000 migrant workers from Rajasthan and Gujarat, who currently work in and around Mumbai, started walking back to their native places on Friday.

"But as the Maharashtra-Gujarat border has been sealed, they could not enter the neighbouring state," inspector Ajay Vasave of Talasari Police Station said.

"As they could not cross the border, they got stuck in Acchad village. They squatted along the border for hours.

"Since it was very risky to gather at one place in such large numbers amid the coronavirus outbreak, the district and police authorities started persuading them to go back to their places in and around Mumbai," he added.

Initially, they were adamant on going to Gujarat and Rajasthan, but later agreed to return to their places, the official said.

"The authorities provided food to them and also made arrangement for their transport," Vasave said. The authorities heaved a sigh of relief after all of them left the place, he said.