Bhopal: Thousands of migrant workers on Sunday blocked National Highway 3 in Madhya Pradesh’s Barwani district and pelted stones at police personnel after they were stopped from entering the state to proceed to Uttar Pradesh.
Three cops were injured in the stone-pelting officials said. "We have held talks with them after which highway has been cleared," said Amit Tomar, the District Collector.
The protests in the region had been brewing for the last few days. Hundreds of migrant workers were also stopped on Thursday by the Barwani district administration from entering the state after the UP government sealed its borders with MP. The migrant labourers, approaching from areas of Bihar, Rajasthan and UP, had gathered at Bijasan border in Sendhva town in Barwani, and staged a dharna after cops denied them entry into the district.
The workers argued that if the authorities don’t have the means to send them home, they should be allowed to go on their own. They also declined to be accommodated in quarantine facilities.
All social distancing norms to control the spread of coronavirus were ignored as the labourers lined up at the border close to each other. Collector Amit Tomar had arrived at the scene with senior police officials and after discussions with the workers, allowed them to go after screening. The migrant workers also were offered food by the administration.
Barwani has been witnessing an influx of large numbers of migrant labourers from the Maharashtra border in the last few days. Some are even taking the hilly route via Ulhas Nagar in Maharastra to enter MP on cycles to reach their homes.
The Shivraj Chouhan government on Thursday appointed seven senior IAS officials and entrusted them with the responsibility of bring back MP labourers stuck in different states, after the Centre issued fresh guidelines allowing them to return.
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