LPG crisis forces migrant workers to return home
Some hid their departure behind made-up family occasions, and others quietly admitted the truth, but all left with heavy bags and heavier hearts.
The LPG crisis is forcing migrants to leave the city for their villages, hoping the separation from the place they call home will be brief.
Railway stations across Delhi-NCR seem busier than usual. Hundreds of migrant labourers stream out with their belongings — mattresses, utensils, and multiple bags piled high on their heads and shoulders.
The reasons: shortage of LPG cylinders, delays in refilling, and soaring black-market prices.
Disappointment writ large on the face of Radhey Sham, 38, who worked as a gig worker by day and a security guard by night. He decided to return to his village in Bithoor, Uttar Pradesh, after multiple failed attempts to get an LPG cylinder.
Queuing to buy tickets at Anand Vihar Railway Station with his Blinkit delivery bag — this time packed with his own belongings — in tow, he worries about his family of four.
“Even after doing multiple jobs, I don’t make more than Rs 20,000. My wife works in nearby houses and adds another Rs 5,000. I have two grown-up children to look after. Managing expenses has already been difficult. How can I afford Rs 3,000 for an LPG cylinder?
“I decided it’s better to leave and save on rent. In the village, we can still cook on a chulha. Hopefully, things will improve in a month, and I’ll be back,” Shyam said in a broken voice as his wife and children tried to console him.
The story was no different for Suman Verma. But whether out of hesitation or shame, the 29-year-old daily wager, balancing multiple gunny bags, said he was leaving for a wedding.
His class 5-going son, Anshu Verma, was quick to reveal the truth once his father stepped away to buy tickets for Bihar at the New Delhi Railway Station.
“We all know the real reason. A lockdown is about to happen. My father said all shops will shut and we won’t be able to return later. We had already run out of gas, and my mother was cooking on a makeshift stove,” Anshu said, with a maturity that belied his age.
The subsidised 14.2-kg LPG cylinders, currently priced at Rs 913 in Delhi for regular domestic connections, were earlier accessible to migrant labourers — without proper papers and household connection — at a premium of Rs 100-200. Now, the same cylinders are being sold on the black market for Rs 3,000 or more.
There has also been a shortage of 5-kg LPG cylinders, which are typically available through distributors without requiring a formal connection.
The Government on Tuesday said it had doubled the daily quota of market-priced 5 kg LPG cylinders for migrant workers as part of efforts to stabilise fuel supplies amid disruptions linked to tensions around the Strait of Hormuz.
Porters, who witness the daily bustle at these railway stations, confirm the migrant exodus.
