Lockdown Impact: Thousands of labourers gather at Bandra Station In Mumbai; lathicharged By cops

Thousands of labourers and daily wage workers gathered near Bandra railway station in Mumbai to catch a ride home as they had though the lockdown would end on April 14.

The police had to resort to lathi-charge to control the crowd.

The crowd mainly composed of daily wage labourers who were unable to go home since all transport means were shut down on March 25 due to the lockdown. The lockdown was supposed to end on April 14, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi today announced that India will be under a lockdown till May 3.

"There is no question of food, food and rations are being provided to them. Earlier, Home Minister Amit Shah had assured that the arrangement will be made to send them back to their home after the lockdown ends, but now the lockdown has been extended so the people are anxious," Maharashtra Cabinet minister Aslam Sheikh said.

According to the police, around 1,000 daily wage workers from the nearby Patel Nagri slum assembled at the Bandra (West) bus stand near the Bandra railway station. These labourers, mostly hailing from Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal had earlier asked for transportation to go back to their home states.

"These people were hoping to get back home. We have been able to persuade them that they will have to wait as no state borders are open yet. The crowd has been dispersed," Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said.

He added, "Mumbai has the largest number of migrant labourers, they had assumed that since today is 14th (April) they will get a chance to get back home. We are glad that state borders have not been opened as if these people had gone back to their home they would have taken the disease with them to their villages."

Maharashtra is the worst-hit coronavirus state in the country with more than 2,000 positive cases of COVID-19 and 160 deaths.

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