Karnataka now allows Maharashtra workers; big rush for buses | Mumbai News

MUMBAI: When Karnataka finally withdrew its objection to receiving immigrants from Maharashtra, a train was arranged to depart from Thane for Kalaburgi in the southern state on Monday. Sixty-six trains have departed from Maharashtra so far with around 73,132 passengers. Most of the trains have gone to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar from the state.
Meanwhile, there was a huge avalanche of passengers at various MSRTC depots on Monday morning, including Parel and Nalasopara.

The MSRTC fell and picked up 11,866 migrants to and from state borders on Monday. Up to 21,714 travelers have been transported free of charge for three days.
Those stranded were hoping to catch a free ST bus to the border as well, although the previous inter-district travel plan had been halted.
“I have asked people not to come to the bus stations but to register at the police stations. We will discuss the rules for inter-district travel and make an announcement soon, ”said state transportation minister Anil Parab. Authorities said 10,000 people were transported on free ST buses for two days.
Parab said the scheme for free inter-district travel on ST buses had to be scrapped after districts in the green zone were reluctant to accept passengers from red zones. “We had three lakh travel requests from Mumbai to Konkan alone,” said Parab.
Workers employed in industrial units in Virar, Boisar, Jawhar and Dahanu went directly to the ST warehouses. In Nalasopara, thousands gathered at the depot outside the train station, demanding buses for Konkan, Marathwada and Vidarbha.
People said that it is difficult for them to cover their daily expenses and that they want to return to their villages. “Hundreds of people from my district work in Mumbai and everyone wants to go home,” said Arjun Barwale from Jalna.
Others wanted to be transported to the border. A day earlier, ST buses picked up several immigrants from the national highways and transported them to the Madhya Pradesh border at no cost.
“I assumed that the ST bus will take us to the state border,” said Akash Singh, a waiter who arrived at the Parel bus station.
Meanwhile, authorities are inundated with requests for migrants to return to their home states and districts. Around 1.9 lakh people filled out the forms in the Palghar district alone, causing the systems to crash for two days.
(With contributions from Sandhya Nair)