Hundreds of migrants walk to BIEC for shelter, but cops send them back

The Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC), the sprawling venue in northern Bengaluru, continues to draw migrant workers who are desperate to find a shelter or catch a train home.

On Tuesday, hundreds of workers walked dozens of kilometres to reach the BIEC from Tumakuru and different parts of Bengaluru but the police stopped them midway, citing space constraints at the venue. As a result, chaos prevailed for some time on Tumakuru Road (National Highway 4) near the Jindal hospital.

Police had a tough time controlling the crowd. They eventually arranged trucks and buses to ferry the workers to the Kempegowda Bus Station at Majestic and to Radha Soami Satsang Beas at Nagasandra.

The workers were then asked to catch BMTC buses to their places of stay.

The workers had arrived at the BIEC, saying they cannot make ends meet as their contractors dumped them.

The BIEC has become an important shelter home for them, and the authorities are providing them with food and other essentials, and arranging for their train tickets.

The sudden arrivals, however, spooked the police. Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao said arrangements were being made to send the workers to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and the Northeast.

He said the workers could not be accommodated at the BIEC as it was filled to capacity. “There isn’t sufficient space to accommodate all the workers. We asked them to go back and contact their local police station for information about the trains,” Rao explained.

“We’ll have to send back them if there’s no space. They can come when their train tickets have been arranged.”