Surat BJP Member Assaults Migrant Worker After Selling Rail Ticket at Hiked Price

Two Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) members, Rajesh Verma and Ajit Rajput, have been found charging exorbitant amount from migrant workers in Surat, Gujarat. While an FIR has been filed against Verma, who also assaulted a worker, no action has been taken against Rajput yet. 

In a video recorded by migrant workers, Vasudev, a migrant worker who can been seen bleeding from his head says: “Rajesh Verma asked us to pay Rs 2,000 per ticket as opposed to Rs 700, the usual fare. We arranged and collected Rs 1.16 lakh and paid Rajesh Verma who said he shall be arranging for our tickets. But when he did not get back, we reached his house and he thrashed me.” 

Another migrant worker, Abhishek Rajbhar, alleged that Rajput, brother of BJP Councillor Amit Rajput, demanded Rs 80,000 from 80 migrants assuring them that he would help to arrange for tickets.  

“I was given to understand that the train journey will be free and I did not have Rs 80,000 with me. But later I collected Rs 4,000 and gave it to Amit Rajput for ticket of four people. But I am yet to get the ticket in my hand. When I asked him, he refused to return the money,” said Rajbhar. 

Reportedly, Rajput collected the money before the special trains had started plying and migrant workers have been queueing up in front of his house everyday for ticket. 

BJP Surat city unit President Nitin Bhajiwala said: “People are working in individual capacity, it is not BJP’s initiative. Anybody can help the migrant workers to get tickets.” 

The incidents have come to light amid the BJP government at the Centre’s announcement that tickets for the special train being run for to ferry migrant workers to their native states shall be free and that the amount shall be shared between state and Central governments. 

Most workers who managed to be accommodated in the special trains have claimed they paid more than the amount printed on tickets. 

“They gave me a ticket that shows a fare of Rs 710 for journey from Surat to Berhampur in Odisha, but I paid Rs 800 to a broker who gave me the ticket,” says a migrant worker, who travelled on May 2. 

However, on May 8, workers of powerlooms in Surat, who belong to Odisha, were distraught after the Odisha government cancelled three special trains that were to ply from Surat the next day. 

“It’s has been more than a month, we don’t have jobs. Most of us have not been paid in full or paid at all in March. We have not been able to pay rent and have been mostly depending on organisations that are doing charity work and feeding workers. But we don’t want to live like this. We want to go home. For the first time in a month, we had some hope and managed to arrange for the train fare. But now we are being told that the trains have been cancelled,” Bipin, a migrant Odia worker, said. 

“Many of us had already booked the ticket with the last of the money we had left,” he aadded. 

Dhaval Patel, Collector of Surat, told the media: “18 Shramik Special, trains each carrying 1,200 migrant workers, have for Odisha till now. But following an order from Odisha high court, three trains scheduled for May 8 were cancelled. As per the order, only those testing negative for COVID-19 will be allowed to board Odisha bound trains.” 

However, defying lockdown hundreds of powerloom workers from Odisha left for their native places on foot on May 9. 

Noticeably, Surat city, a hub of diamond, textile industries, industries at Hazira port that employs more than 12 lakh migrant workers, has been in turmoil since the sudden lockdown was announced by the Prime Minister viewing the COVID-19 pandemic. 

On May 9 workers of the industrial zone at Hazira clashed with police in Mora village near Surat while demanding to be sent home or be allowed to resume work. Police lobbed tear gas shells to disperse them. More than 100 migrant workers have been detained. 

Migrants workers of Surat have multiple times come out on roads, protesting and demanding to be sent home. Many workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, who work in textile mills, have in the past attempted to walk home bound but been stopped by local police. There have been FIRs filed against the workers and police have resorted to lathi charge and lobbing tear gas to disperse them. 

Noticeably most of the migrants have not been paid salaries or partially paid in March, and have run out of food and money. Adding to their woes, their living condition are inhuman at the urban workers ghetto, where at least 8 to 10 workers are having to share a 10x10 square feet room. Many workers have also been asked to vacate as they have not been able to pay the rent. 

“Some textile workers received ration once last month. But mostly they have been depending on various organisations doing charity work of feeding workers. Besides, most of them don’t have any document of Surat so can’t avail any facility here,” says Uma Shankar Mishra, a migrant worker from Uttar Pradesh.