Thousands gather at Bandra terminus, police disperse crowd with lathicharge

Mumbai : Mumbai has registered the maximum cases of coronavirus so far and the situation became worse when thousands of people went on to streets hoping to go back home after PM Modi announced an extension of lockdown till May 3. A video footage of the incident showed people defying the basic guidelines of social distancing and staying indoors.

Amid demands of facilities to go back home, the cops had to initiate lathicharge to disperse the crowd.

The visuals of people hitting the bus station have raised a serious question on the authorities that how such crowd can gather despite several containment zones in the state. It also raised concern about further spread of the virus - Mumbai has seen more than 1,500 cases of COVID-19,  more than half of the 2,300-plus cases in Maharashtra.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah called up Uddhav Thackeray to take stock of the situation and also offer his support to him. The administration needs to stay vigilant as such events will weaken India's fight against coronavirus, he said. 

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray later spoke on the issue and mentioned that the people gathered because someone told them that the trains will begin operation from evening. "The trains will start running and they will go home...Someone said something and hence they gathered". "Don't play with their emotions. They are poor people. I warn you don't play with their emotions," he said, addressing rumour-mongers.

In a series of tweets Aaditya Thackeray, the son of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, blamed the Central government's lack of initiative to send the migrants home.

"The current situation at Bandra Station, now dispersed or even the rioting in Surat is a result of the Union Govt not being able to take a call on arranging a way back home for migrant labour. They don't want food or shelter, they want to go back home," he tweeted.