Chaos, confusion and a stampede-like situation prevailed at the Delhi-Ghaziabad border as thousands of migrant workers fought amongst themselves to get seats on the limited number of buses the Uttar Pradesh administration operated on Saturday to ferry them to the hinterlands.
Thousands of daily wagers and labourers from Delhi, Haryana and even Punjab reached Anand Vihar, Ghazipur and Ghaziabad's Lal Kuan area after taking arduous treks of many kilometers on foot to take buses to their respective native places.
But the people, in hordes, far outnumbered the seats on the buses, resulting in many of them travelling on rooftops after every inch inside was crammed with passengers and their luggage.
Social distancing norms seemed to have been discarded as they squeezed into the buses. Some wore face masks but most had handkerchiefs tied over their noses and mouths to protect them from the infection.
There were around 10,000 to 15,000 people at Anand Vihar at 9.30 pm on Saturday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Dinesh Kumar Gupta said.
"There are around 60 to 70 buses. The passengers have been standing in queues and boarding them. Till midnight, around 500 more buses will reach Delhi," Gupta said.
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Delhi's Transport mMinister Kailash Gahlot said 570 buses were deployed to drop migrant workers at the UP border.
"Delhi government wants everyone to stay in Delhi but arrangements are being made for those trying to go to UP. Delhi government's 570 buses will drop them at UP border. I would be happy if UP government sends buses for them," Gahlot tweeted.
Earlier in the day, the Uttar Pradesh government announced that it has arranged 1,000 buses to ferry migrant labourers stranded at the border districts owing to a countrywide lockdown.
Ghaziabad district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey told PTI that the migrants passing through the district were asked not to proceed further but they were adamant to go back to their villages.
To help the people trying to get to their distant homes on foot, 450 buses were provided to them after properly sanitising, he added.
Good Samaritans also distributed food to those who had made arduous journeys by walking long distances.
The imposition of a nationwide coronavirus lockdown has left migrant workers with no means to earn a living, forcing them to undertake long journeys on foot to their far-flung homes in the absence of any means of transport.
Delhi as well as industrial towns in the neighbouring states of Haryana and Punjab employ thousands of workers from states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
Santosh Singh, 23, who hails from Hardoi in Uttar Pradesh, said he walked 110 km from Charki Dadri where he works for a plastic unit. Even after reaching the border, he could not get a seat on the bus and decided to walk another 20 km to Lal Kuan in the hope of getting on another bus.
At the border, hundreds roamed around to get buses to places such as Lucknow, Hardoi, Barelli, Kanpur, Allahabad, Aligarh and Moradabad. But with no arrangements for orderly boarding or announcements, they scrambled to get in whenever a bus arrived.
A handful of policemen stood on the sides with batons but did not intervene to regulate the massive crowds.
"We have no count of how many of them would have crossed (into Uttar Pradesh) since Wednesday but they keep coming all through the day," a police officer on patrol duty at the border said. "The exodus peaked yesterday (Friday) but we were able to regulate their entry."
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