Elaborate arrangements were made for the 879 migrant workers who came in a Shramik special train from Telangana early on Thursday morning at Tatanagar station.

This was the first batch of migrants to return by train to Jamshedpur.

The entire station premises right from platform number one to the parking bay was divided into 13 sectors and three zones with magistrates and security personnel deputed for assistance and ensuring health protocols as the train chugged in at the station at 5am.

“We had been staying in a pitiable condition after the lockdown and depended on foods supplied by the Telangana state government,” said Manoj Kumar, 23, a resident of Dandai block of Garhwa, who used to work in a rolling steel plant in Kutur near Hyderabad for nearly a year on a monthly wage of Rs 15,000.

“We had staged an agitation also and we had received assurance that soon we would be sent to our state. On May 4, police came and took our details and finally on May 5 night we were taken to Ghatkesar station (around 23km from Hyderabad) and given tickets of Rs 635 along with food packets (khichdi) and a bottle of mineral water. We were allowed to board the train at 2.30am (on Wednesday) and the train left the station at 4.30am,” Manoj said.

“We did not have to pay for our travel,” he added.

A total of 32 buses had been arranged at the station for taking the migrant workers to districts such as Ranchi, Deoghar, Gumla, Chatra, Garhwa, Latehar, Palamau, West Singhbhum, Seraikela, Jamtara and Hazaribagh. The buses left for the districts with police escorting them.

“The bulk of the migrant workers were from Garhwa (231), Palamau (398), Chatra (122) and Latehar (92). We provided them food packets and water apart from sanitising their hands and arranged buses to drop them at their houses in the village,” said East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Ravi Shankar Shukla.

A 26-year-old migrant worker , a resident of Dubrajpur village in Chakulia block of East Singhbhum district, was sent to a quarantine centre in Kadma, Jamshedpur.

“Since he was from our home district and was alone we sent him for quarantine at Kadma,” said said N.K. Lal, East Singhbhum additional district magistrate, law and order. “We have informed his family and would be sending him back home after the quarantine period of 14 days.”

Many workers returned along with their families.

“My husband used to work in a dye unit in Secunderabad but after the lockdown he had not got his salary for April and we were facing difficulties,” said Afsana Khatoon, 30, wife of Mohammed Sagir, 34, who returned with their four children. “We got in touch with our mukhiya in Chatra who advised us to get in touch with the state control room. On May 5 we were taken to Ghatkesar station and boarded the train after screening and being given the tickets.”

She also said that none of those who returned had to pay for their ticket.

On the initiative of BJP leader and former Baharagora MLA Kunal Sarangi, 21 students and two teachers of East Singhbhum Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, who had gone on an exchange programme to Goalpara in Assam last month and had been sent for quarantine, were allowed to be sent home on a bus on Thursday.