Surat: No trains, owners fly in mill workers

SURAT: Even in his wildest flight of fantasy, Shivrati Kumar, 22, a textile worker from Chandauli district in Uttar Pradesh could never dream of travelling by air. Kumar, therefore, kept pinching himself in the aircraft, not to stay awake but to assure himself that he wasn’t dreaming of flying from Varanasi to Surat via Delhi.

Thanks to the generosity shown by the powerloom unit owner in Sachin GIDC,

Mansukh Lakhani

, Kumar along with his brother Ashok, 23, flew back to the city in an IndiGo flight on Wednesday evening. The brother duo travelled on a friend’s motorcycle for nearly two hours to reach the Varanasi airport in time from Chandauli and embark on their ‘fairytale journey’ to Delhi on Wednesday afternoon.

Sharing his experience with TOI, Ashok, who operates high-speed rapier machine at Lakhani’s powerloom unit gushed, “It was awesome. I fulfilled my life’s biggest dream. Had our boss not spent on flight tickets for us, coming to Surat would have been a long wait.”

The Kumar brothers had left Surat via a Shramik special train early May. “How we survived all these months sans work is another tale. Our parents work as farm labourers. We have started the job from Thursday and that my boss has offered us to stay in the unit itself and that he is taking care of our food and everything,” he added. Shivrati, too, was all smiles while stating that they were lucky while many other workers in Chandauli are still stranded owing to the long waiting lists in trains for more than a month.

Talking to TOI, owner Mansukh Lakhani said: “I have 150 powerloom machines lying defunct in my mill for almost five months now for want of workers. While I require 50 workers to operate the entire unit, I called in these two brothers, who are experts in handling the highspeed rapier machines, from UP via flight so that I can start operating 10 machines at least. I am also planning to book a private luxury bus to bring 50 more workers from Odisha soon.”

Like Lakhani, another unit owner in Sachin GIDC, Nilesh Gami, purchased six flight tickets to bring his workers from UP. “We can’t wait for the trains to bring back our workers. I had to spend Rs 4,500 each for bringing six workers to Surat,” he said.

Mayur Golwala

, leader of powerloom industry said, “Running special trains is the only option. Not all weavers can afford to bring their workers via flights.”

Last week, the industry leaders along with Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) made a joint representation to Railway ministry urging reverse Shramik trains from Bihar, UP and Odisha to bring back about 15 lakh migrant workers to Surat.

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