Migrant workers stage dharna at police station

Migrant workers staging protest in front of the two-town police station in Khammam on Tuesday.

Desperate to return home, several dozens of stranded migrant workers, mostly from Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, took to the streets here on Tuesday demanding immediate arrangements to send them back to their homes.

The aggrieved migrant workers of various granite factories and allied industries in Khammam division gathered near the two-town police station here, seeking the urgent intervention of the authorities to help them go back to their native villages.

Hit hard by the lockdown, the stranded workers expressed their anguish over the alleged delay in sending them back home despite the Home Ministry’s fresh guidelines permitting inter-State movement of stranded migrant workers.

The agitated workers displayed makeshift placards which read: “Hame Gao Jaane Dho” (Allow us to return to our homes).

Braving scorching sun, the workers squatted in front of the police station and resorted to sloganeering. The local police tried to explain to them the plan of action to ensure their return journey.

Tense situation prevailed for some time as the agitated workers continued their sloganeering and attempted to block the main road. Senior police officials intervened and brought the situation under control.

The officials urged the migrant workers to register their names and furnish the details of their residential addresses with the local police for making transportation arrangements to send them back to their native places.

Official sources said that more than 30,000 migrant workers, mostly farm labourers, had already left for their native villages from various parts of the district.

Efforts were on to send the remaining workers back to their homes either in special trains or hired vehicles with transit permits in adherence to norms in a day or two, sources added.

Meanwhile, a team of officials visited the Pandillapalli railway station near here on Tuesdayand chalked out arrangements for the smooth dispatch of the migrant workers from north India in a special train likely to be deployed in the small hours of Wednesday.