By the time government calls, migrants are already home!

Many migrants like these on the Mumbai-Agra highway, also walked home. Pic/Ranjeet Jadhav

Furious about standing in queues for hours to submit forms and then waiting for their turn to travel, hundreds of migrants have walked or used transport to reach their hometowns, even before permission was granted to them by cops to leave. Police say 1.35 lakh to 1.40 lakh migrants in north Mumbai alone, from Goregaon to Dahisar, have registered with police stations seeking permission to travel.

But thousands of them have already travelled home by walking or by cars and private buses. This was revealed when the police called them to inform them about their journey home, said a police source.

A list of passengers going to different states is prepared by every police station. It goes to the collector through the nodal officer and after permission is granted, it is sent back to the nodal officer who decides on the passengers who will travel in a train.

These two families walking to UP from Mumbai, were among hundreds others, as reported by mid-day recently. Pic/Rajesh Gupta

"Once the train, its destination and timing was finalised, we started calling the passengers. But in the past several days we have observed that many of the stranded migrants or others who had registered their names seeking permission to travel to their native villages, had already left and reached," said a police officer.

Police speak
"This number is not much. Most of them are here and waiting for their turn. The train frequency for them has also been increased," said Senior Inspector Jagdev Kalapad of Malwani police station. Around 24,000 people have submitted the forms and the process is still under way here, he added.

'Migrants reached villages'
"Yes, it is true. We have observed that many people who had submitted their forms to the police station have reached their native villages. We found this when our officials called them to inform their date of journey," added Senior Inspector George Fernandez from Malad police station where 7,000 people have registered.

"So far around 5,000 people permitted to travel by private car, buses and train have left for their native places. But many others have reached their native villages before their turn came to travel via the train," said Senior Inspector Raju Kasbe from Samatanagar police station.

1.40 lakh
No. of migrants registered with cops in north Mumbai

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