Lockdown: Migrant workers clash with police in Gujarat

Surat: Hundreds of migrant workers seeking to return home clashed with police and pelted stones at them near a village in Gujarat's Surat district on Monday, following which the security personnel lobbed teargas shells and baton-charged the agitated workers, an official said.

Besides, several labourers also came out on a road in Rajkot demanding that they be sent back to their hometowns, while some migrant workers got their heads tonsured in an area of Surat after being unable to go back home.

Hundreds of migrant workers clashed with police near Vareli village on the outskirts of Surat while demanding that arrangements be made to send them back to their native places in the wake of the coronavirus-enforced lockdown, a police official said.


They threw stones at the police, following which the security personnel retaliated and lobbed teargas shells and lathi-charged the agitated workers, he said.

The labourers also damaged some vehicles parked on Surat-Kadodara road, he said.

The situation was later brought under control and security was stepped up in the area, he added.

Besides, 50 migrant labourers got their heads tonsured in Surat's Pandesara locality on Monday after being unable to leave for their native places in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.

They claimed that two days back their buses were given permission to leave Gujarat. But, later they were stopped at Kosamba in Surat by local administration officials due to lack of "valid permission" and asked to go back.

The workers said they have been waiting endlessly for the administration to clear their journey back home.

One of them said the money they arranged for the bus fare after lot of hardships has not been returned to them, and demanded that governments of Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat co- ordinate their travel back home without delay.