Lockdown displaces lakhs of migrants
Coronavirus lockdown | Police cane migrant workers near Vijayawada
A policeman wielding a lathi on migrant workers at Kanakadurgamma Varadhi, near Vijayawada, on Saturday.
Nearly 500 labourers were walking towards their home States from Tamil Nadu
In yet another incident, police used force on migrant labourers, who were walking towards their home States. A few workers suffered injuries in the lathi-charge.
More than 500 labourers who were trekking on the national highway were provided shelter in Vijayawada Club. When the labourers came to Kanakadurgamma Varadhi on Saturday, police warned them to go back, and when the workers tried to continue their journey, the police caned them.
The labourers from Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and other States had migrated to Tamil Nadu a few months ago. The COVID-19 pandemic put them out of work forcing them to return to their home States.
On the directions of Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney, the labourers were shifted to shelter homes and provided food. On Friday, they were shifted to Vijayawada Club.
“We will never return to Andhra Pradesh again. Hundreds of workers are walking on roads for more than a month, and the officials did not even offer us a packet of biscuit. Instead of helping the poor labourers, the police are beating us mercilessly,” a woman labourer said.
Earlier, incidents of police beating the migrant workers were reported at Mangalagiri, Kovvur, Polavaram and other places in the State during the lockdown period.
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