Labourers wait for a train at Raxaul railway station. Picture by Jai Prakash

Raxaul, June 10: Homecoming has neither been sweet nor permanent for daily wagers of East and West Champaran.

Many of them returned home till a few months ago with the hope of finding job opportunities. With broken hearts, they are leaving again. They cold not find a livelihood at home turf.

Sources said every morning there is a huge rush of labourers at the Raxaul railway station. Most of them are bound for different destinations, like Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Amritsar.

Rahim Alam, Mohan Lal, Hari Narain Mahto, Ram Bahadur and Awadh Rout are residents of different villages in East Champaran and Sitamarhi districts.

Alam told The Telegraph: “For several months we had worked in government-sponsored schemes. However, owing to the frequent complications in regular payment and demands of the officials concerned, we have decided to go out of the state to look for work, where opportunities are more regular and the remunerations are attractive.”

There are several agencies in these districts that engage labourers from Bihar for big farmers and entrepreneurs in the north Indian states. Sources said these agents and touts have been recruiting labourers from villages in Champaran, Sitamarhi and Sheohar. They have been offering lucrative wages and other perks to lure the workers. At least two Ludhiana-based tyre and rubber manufacturing companies have been hiring a large number of workers.

As a result of this mass exodus, other passengers at the railway station are finding it difficult to get seats on trains. Most seats have been booked by outward bound workers.

Residents of the town, too, are amazed by the rush at the railway station.

The railway employees, however, are very pleased, as the outward-bound labourers are buying thousands of tickets everyday.

Raxaul stationmaster Om Prakash Shrivastava said: “The railway is earning huge revenue from the migrant labourers.”

The station has also become a temporary stopover facility for the labourers who do not get seats on the Delhi-bound Satyagraha Express. They are forced to spend the night on the platform.

A Railway Protection Force officer said: “With so many people in the station, we have a lot of trouble keeping the situation under control.”