They’re fleeing to safety, away from the ‘Raj’

MUMBAI: Had Dhansingh Nisad stayed back in Pune, then he would have earned at least Rs20,000 by May, and returned to his home in a remote Chhattisgarh village with little savings. The same is true for his relative, Mahesh, who’s returning with his family to his native Taraut, 70 km north of Bilaspur. In the next six hours, they hope to be in “safe territory”, away from the ‘Raj’ here.

For the past 10 days, Nagpur had seen hundreds of poor migrants arriving - fleeing from Pune, Nashik and Mumbai - in buses, trucks and trains. Told by MNS activists to leave the state by February 25 or face retribution, they are rushing back to their homes in remote Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa.
One of the scared faces on transit told DNA, “MNS supporters told us to speak in Marathi. When we failed, they asked us to leave the state immediately.” Many of these migrant workers did not even wait to take their payments, due this month-end.

One from a group of construction labourers fleeing from Pune said, “Builders and contractors requested us to stay, but we are scared of staying in Maharashtra.”

Since most of them are employed in the construction industry, these migrant labourers believe that the sector would take a beating following their exit. And it’s just not the labourers who have been hit hard; the builders too would suffer losses.

Usually, migrants return to their native place during Holi, and return to work again in May. But this time, they feel, there will be no coming back.