Confusion prevailed in Gummidipoondi on Friday night, after the Tiruvallur police shifted hundreds of migrant labourers -- who were in the care of NGOs -- to a private engineering college in the district. The NGOs have stressed on the need for better co-ordination between them and the district administration to help migrant workers reach home safely.
According to sources, thousands of migrant labourers from Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts have been crossing Tamil Nadu’s border at Gummidipoondi to enter Andhra Pradesh to proceed towards their home towns in West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.
“When we came to know about this, we brought more than 2,000 loaves of bread and water bottles to help them. We also co-ordinated with NGOs in Andhra Pradesh and they set up food stops in Nellore district We found that the Andhra Pradesh government was not allowing the workers to proceed through their State and were bringing them back, including those who had walked till Vijayawada, and dropping them in Gummidipoondi,” said a member of an NGO working at the border.
The NGOs then took the help of the Bihar State Association and promised to arrange for transport for the workers, with the help of the government, to reach their respective States. “So we convinced the workers to stay back for a few more days and to give time to the government to organise transportation ,” said the NGO member.
However, on Friday night, there was confusion when the policemen moved the migrant workers to a shelter in an engineering college without co-ordinating with the NGOs. “It will be much easier to help the workers if there is better co-ordination between the district administration and NGOs. The Greater Chennai Corporation has an excellent model of co-operation with NGOs,” said NGO member.
Tiruvallur Collector Mageswari Ravikumar said that they have provided shelter to 187 migrant labourers so far in the district.
“We are providing them food and we are co-ordinating with the respective State governments and arranging transport. Two people from Madhya Pradesh came in a train recently,” she said.
Police denied that there was confusion at the border. “They were just shifted to a safer place,” said a police officer.
