As many as 500 to 600 construction workers, hailing from villages in Nanjangud taluk and Chamarajanagar district, who come to Mysuru in search of work at sites, have been going back to their respective villages without getting work.
This has been the case since post-demonetisation. One month had completed after the Centre banned the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes on November 8.
Many of these workers are illiterate and semi-literate, whose living solely rests on earning at the construction sites.
Many had availed loans and are finding it tough to repay the credit.
Post-demonetisation, many of them were not getting labour as either the construction work had been suspended over currency crisis or number of labourers employed at the sites had been cut.
About 3,000 construction workers from many villages of Chamarajanagar district depend on the work they get in Mysuru for their livelihood. They arrive here in the train that departs from Chamarajanagar town in the morning and return to their villages by the evening train.
Chamarajapuram station in the city is the alighting point for most workers who later assemble near the shopping complex at Kuvempunagar, where the contractors pick up them to their sites depending on the nature of work.
Those, who are regularly employed by the contractors, had no problem and their work had not been affected since they are paid once a week.
Workers from Chinnadagudihundi, Badanavalu, Hemmaragala, Kavalande, Nerale, Pannedahundi and other villages claim that work was not an issue at all before the currency ban since all of them were getting work daily and money.
After the ban, the scope of work had declined.
Shivaswamy, Siddappa, Chikkashetti and Mallikarjuna, workers in their late 30s, maintain that they had not been getting work regularly due to the currency ban and suspension of construction work.
“We get around Rs. 400 daily and sometimes we settle to work for Rs. 350. People who employ us cite currency problem as reason for not giving them labour at the sites. In sites, where 10 labourers were working before the ban, only five work there. They don’t want to spend due to the crisis,” Shivaswamy and Siddappa said.
Both Chikkashetti and Mallikarjuna claimed that at least 500-600 workers don’t get work on a regular basis and they return to their respective villages, hoping to get work the next day.
“Some contractors ask us to work for less pay citing the current problem. They give a Rs. 2,000 note and ask us to share among the four or five workers due to the change problem. When they cannot get the change, where can we get as many of us have no bank accounts and not visited banks,” they said.
