Empty cylinders drive migrants back home

PATNA: Trains rolled in. Platforms swelled. Migrant families from Bihar stepped down at Patna Junction with bedding, steel containers, plastic sacks – returning from cities where cooking has become unaffordable. Faces carried fatigue and a decision driven by empty cylinders and the search for a flame that costs less than a day’s wage. LPG shortage bites.

“LPG vendors are charging Rs 500 a kg. It lasts two days,” said Manoj, a construction worker from Punpun in Patna district who arrived from New Delhi with his wife and two children. “We could not continue.”