A group of about 100 migrant workers belonging to Odisha, working at construction sites in Vellore city in Tamil Nadu, on Monday reached the district Collectorate here on foot, covering a distance of 40 km.
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The migrant workers settled on the lawns of the Collectorate, and urged the officials to arrange an audience for them with Collector Narayana Bharat Gupta. They urged the Collector to arrange them transport to Odisha, as their repeated requests with officials in Tamil Nadu had not yielded any results.
On knowing that five trains had left for the northern States and Odisha carrying migrant workers, the workers said they had arrived in Chittoor with a hope that they too could reach their destination.
“We are a group of 18 men and six women working in the construction field in Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts. When the lockdown commenced, we were with a contractor executing construction works at a college. In no time, the contractor disappeared and left us in the lurch. For 60 days, we depended on public charity and distribution of food packets. Now, we came to Chittoor to board some special train,” Jathin, a mason from Koraput, said.
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Majority of other construction workers who reached Chittoor were from Bhubaneswar and Puri districts, and expressed similar predicament.
Temporary shelter
Meanwhile, the district officials made arrangements to provide them with temporary shelter and food facilities in Chittoor. Before shifting them to the facilities, they were subjected to thermal screening and following of the social distancing and face mask etiquettes. A senior official said the current batch of workers would be made to join the next batch of workers bound for Odisha as and when the schedule of any Shramik Rail was announced.
Some voluntary organisations came forward to extend immediate support to them.