The illegal changes to commercial buildings to accommodate guest workers and housing them in unlicensed buildings will be investigated to ensure their safety, District Collector U.V. Jose has said.
Mr. Jose, who visited migrant labour camps in Kuttiyadi and Kayakkodi panchayats for an inspection on Friday in the wake of reports of fresh cases of filariasis, said all the illegally provided accommodations would be closed down after inspections. Action would be initiated only after the relocation of labourers to safer locations with the support of local residents, he said.
In the close inspection, it was found that 26 out of the 31 buildings allotted for the guest labourers were in a pathetic condition. Closure notice would be served on the blacklisted ones under the Disaster Management Act shortly. During the visit, the Collector also checked the buildings that had drainage pipes connected to nearby water bodies and secured the visuals for follow-up action. Representatives of a local residents’ association too approached the Collector with complaints on various issues related to the health of guest labourers. They alleged that the labourers were not even getting proper treatment support by the local panchayat authorities.
Health department authorities said they had confirmed 46 cases of filariasis among guest labourers in Kayakkodi panchayat alone. Five of them had gone home and all others had been extended proper treatment, they said.
The medical team, including National Rural Health Mission coordinators, who accompanied the Collector, confirmed that no filariasis cases had been reported from among the local residents. The guest labourers were infected by the filarial worms from their own home land, they said.
