Train Journey Promise, Others Keep Migrants Sane in B’luru

BENGALURU:
Bollywood movies, north Indian cuisine and a promised train journey back home are engaging many a migrant labourers to kill time sanely in the city, an official said here on Tuesday.

“Hindi cinema, chapatis (Indian flat bread) and a promise to help them to take a train to their native states,” tweeted BBMP Commissioner B.H. Anil Kumar on the steps the civic body has taken to keep the migrants sane.

The civic body is housing more than a 1,000 migrants at Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC), a famous convention centre on the outskirts of Bengaluru by Tumkur Road. Kumar shared a video of the transit camp where the migrants in a relaxed mood were enjoying a Hindi cinema playing on a makeshift large screen.

Amid police vigil, a few hundred labourers were lying on the floor, some wearing masks with their luggage by their side, were focusing on the screen beaming Ranveer Singh starrer Padmavaat movie.

“That”s BBMP looking after over a 1,000 migrants at BIEC transit camp tonight,” he said.

Meanwhile, the South Western Railway (SWR) zone which operates in Karnataka has already ferried more than 1 lakh migrant labourers back home to more than half a dozen north Indian and east Indian states. The railway zone is running around 10 Shramik special trains a day from Bengaluru and other places in Karnataka, carrying on an average 10,000 migrants back home.