India: Migrant workers block highway in Kutch, pelt stones

Gandhidham, May 13 (PTI) Desperate to travel to their home states amidst the coronavirus-induced lockdown, hundreds of migrant workers on Wednesday blocked a main highway passing through Gandhidham town in Gujarat's Kutch district and pelted some vehicles with stones, an official said.

These migrants claimed that though they had finished the necessary registration process but there was no response from the administration about their repatriation.

The stone pelting damaged the windscreen of a truck besides forcing vehicles to stop near a cargo area on the Gandhidham-Kandla highway.

In a video of the incident, police personnel can be seen rushing towards the mob and Kutch-East superintendent of police Parikshita Rathod asking migrants to calm down using a loud speaker mounted on a police vehicle.

"Out of frustration, these migrants came out and blocked the highway. The windscreen of a truck got damaged in stone pelting," said an official of Kutch-East police control room.

Gandhidham-B division Police Inspector SS Desai said the situation was under control now.