Every citizen of the country is well aware of the government’s act of enforcing a novel coronavirus triggered nationwide lockdown. The horror of this malignant coronavirus is expeditiously spreading more and more with each passing day. The country’s economy has also experienced a great blow due to the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Every group of the country has been greatly affected by the COVID 19 pandemic in its own way. However, the class that has been agitated the most are the migrant labourers. Due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, they have lost their means of wages and have no replacement for their work amidst these critical times. They have been striving hard for food and safe shelters. And to top it all up, they could not even return back to their families in their respective home towns in various states of the country on account of the corona virus triggered nationwide lockdown.

The migrant labourers, having no other option left before them, have decided to start towards their respective hometowns on foot. They are adamant to walk the miles long journey on foot having found no other means left for them to get back with their families, in their hometowns, in these times of despair. Considering the plight of the migrant workers, the government has decided to start special train and bus services to help these poor migrant labourers in these unfortunate circumstances of the pandemic. 

It has been reported that around 21,000 migrant workers and their families have been transported in 1,169 buses by the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation between the 9^th and 11^th of this month. The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation or MSRTC is known to be India’s second largest fleet owner. The migrant workers were safely dropped off at the borders of their respective states and the ones waiting at those borders were brought back home.

The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation buses have been assigned to start from depots of Nashik, Jalgaon, Dhule, Ahmednagar, Nagpur since the 9^th of May.  However, on Monday, the 11^th of May, the portal that was responsible for registering more migrant workers who wished to travel was still non functional. 

“Initially, the links for individual and group bookings were seen on the MSRTC portal in the morning, but on clicking neither of them were functioning. I then alerted the chief minister’s office and filed a complaint.”, said activist Anil Galgani on Monday.