Empty cylinders drive migrants back home | India News

Patna: The train has entered. The platform is swollen. Migrant families from Bihar descend on Patna Junction with beds, steel utensils, plastic sacks – returning from cities where cooking has become impossible. The look carries fatigue and a decision driven by empty cylinders and a search for a spark that costs less than a day’s wages. LPG shortage is biting.“LPG sellers are charging Rs 500 per kg. It lasts for two days,” said Manoj, a construction worker from Punpun in Patna district who has come from New Delhi with his wife and two children. “We couldn’t continue.”Ramu, a Chennai factory worker bound to the sharsa, did the math. “Two days wages for gas to cook one meal. It is better to be unemployed at home than without food in the big city.”Officials said about 2,500 workers have returned so far, many citing the cost of cooking gas. An estimated 48 lakh migrants are working across Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and Mumbai in Bihar. Labor department teams have started panchayat level survey to track returns.The New Delhi to Magadha Express draws waves of homebound workers at 12.30pm on Tuesday. By 2.20 pm the Brahmaputra Mail brought another wave. Gujarat to Azimabad Express. Ernakulam Express from South. Each arrival adds to the churn.Danapur reflected the flow – Bengaluru to Sanghamitra Express, Gujarat to Udhana Express – unloading commuters driven away from jobs by rising fuel costs.Many returnees came from Siwan, Gopalganj, Madhubani, Darbhanga and Saharsa. The jobs left behind spread across construction sites, factories, dhabas and housing complexes. Sonu, a security guard in Noida, who earns Rs 6,000 a month, says options run out when his cylinder runs out. “We ate on the streets for days. No coal or firewood is allowed in residential areas,” he said.Homemaker Nishi Devi, who returned to Bhojpur with three children, is counting the days after proper food. “The employer helped first. Then they faced the same crisis. We can’t pay black market rates and rent. At home, I will cook dung cakes,” he said.The train started coming. Vikas, a porter who has been at the station for 12 years, has seen a change in footfall. “Not like the epidemic rush, but the numbers are increasing in the last two weeks,” he said.