Migrant workers hoping to leave Bengaluru for homes, forced to pay double and triple price for bus tickets as KSRTC hikes fares

Bengaluru: A large number of people gathered at Majestic Bus Terminal here on Saturday morning to travel back to their respective home States amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown. A majority of them are the migrant labourers who were rendered jobless after the imposition of lockdown in March to check the spread of coronavirus. [caption id=“attachment_8325441” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Migrant workers thronged Bengaluru’s Majestic Bus Terminal hoping to leave [/caption] “We were working as labourers in the city. From the past many weeks, we were unable to earn anything because of the lockdown. We are surviving without food. At this point of time, they are charging us double and triple for the tickets. This is literally harassment,” said a commuter. “Earlier, we used to pay Rs 500-600 from Bengaluru to Raichur. Now, the KSRTC is charging us Rs 1,400. The hike in fare is creating more problems to migrant workers,” said a local while speaking to ANI. Prabhakar Reddy, Chief Traffic Manager, said that they are arranging buses for different districts and are carrying only 30 commuters in each bus. “We are arranging buses for different districts. We are sending 30 commuters one bus while abiding by the guidelines. If any request comes from the neighbouring States, we will send buses there too,” he said while speaking to ANI. Click here for Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates Recently, the Centre issued an order to States and Union Territories to facilitate the inter-state movement of stranded people including migrant labourers in the country. The Home Ministry stated in its order that all persons must be medically screened at source and destination and kept in the home or institutional quarantine on their arrival. (ANI)