Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the extension of lockdown in the country till May 3, hundreds of migrant workers on Tuesday evening came out in open in Surat demanding permission to travel back home.
This is the second incident in less than a week in the city where the migrant workers have defied lockdown and hit the roads demanding money, food and permission to travel back.
According to local police, nearly 700 to 800 migrant workers in Mohanagar on Varacha Road in Surat came out of their homes and demanded permission to travel back to their natives.
By the evening, the workers started pouring in on Varacha road, known for diamond market, wearing masks but defying section 144 of Indian Penal Code that prohibits the gathering of more than four persons without police permission.
Soon, the road started teeming with the agitated workers who complained that they didn't have money, work or even food and they wanted to go back home.
A group of policemen including several senior officers approached the workers, who are mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and employed in textile mills, to pacify them. "They are getting impatient but the police alone can't resolve it. If some concrete steps are not taken, such agitation may turn violent," said a senior police officer who requested not to be quoted.
Earlier on April 10, a group of workers, mostly from Odisha, had gone violent in Sarthana area of the city. They attacked policemen and burnt several handcarts near a vegetable market. The police arrested 81 of them. A similar incident happened on March 30 when police arrested migrants for attacking police. These workers were also trying to go back to their homes in UP and Bihar but were stopped by the police.