Lockdown: Rajasthan refuses entry to Guj-based migrant workers

Over 500 migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar were stuck at the Shamlaji border town in Gujarat after the Rajasthan Police refused them entry, an official said on Tuesday.

These labourers are now being sent to shelter homes in Gujarat, said Inspector General, Gandhinagar Range, Mayanksinh Chavda, who rushed to the spot after getting information about the matter.

Thousands of Gujarat-based migrant workers had earlier started their journey on foot to reach Rajasthan following the announcement of lockdown last week to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Labourers hailing from southern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and parts of Madhya Pradesh around Neemuch and Khajuraho use the Rajasthan route via Shamlaji town in Gujarat's Aravalli district.

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"It is true that Rajasthan Police caught the non-Rajasthani migrant workers and sent them back to the border on Monday night. While natives of Rajasthan are allowed to go to their villages, migrants from other states were asked to return to Gujarat," Chavda said.

"Following guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs, we are now taking care of them and have started the process of shifting them to shelter homes after conducting their medical tests," he said.

Some of the workers said they were brought to Shamlaji by Rajasthan Police on the pretext of providing them food and transportation till their native places.

"The Rajasthan Police asked nearly 500 of us to sit in their vehicles when we had already covered a good distance on foot in Rajasthan. Instead of providing us food and transportation as promised, we were brought back to Gujarat border. We don't even have water to drink," a labourer hailing from Uttar Pradesh said.

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