In a desperate bid to leave home, around 4,000 migrant workers from Manipur and other states gathered at Palace Grounds in Bengaluru on Saturday morning, May 23 in order to register for trains to return home.
Workers from states such as Tripura, Odisha and Manipur were present at the Palace Grounds. According to reports, the migrants received confirmation of bookings for trains, but only a thousand were allowed to travel.
Pictures and videos of migrant workers, standing under the scorching sun and flouting the physical distancing guidelines near Palace Grounds, surfaced social media showing queues stretching for kilometres along the Palace Grounds stretch.
Karnataka minister K Sudhakar said, "I talked to them, they are worried and want to go back to Manipur but I hope they will return to Bengaluru as this is their second home."
As Lockdown 4.0 brought ease of restrictions across the country, India crossed the 1.25 lakh mark coronavirus cases with the total number rising to 1,25,101, the Union Health Ministry data revealed on Saturday. Of the total cases, 69,597 are active, 51,783 have recovered while 3,720 people have lost their lives due to the deadly virus.
(to be updated further)
