Chennai migrant construction workers demand to be sent home

Reports of migrant labourers in Telangana, Kerala and elsewhere returning to their home states, is leading to similar demands in Tamil Nadu too.

About 1,100 migrant workers at a construction site at Alappakkam near here are demanding they be sent back home whereas the company officials are pressuring them to stay back and start work, said migrant workers and non-governmental organisations (NGO).

"We are about 1,100 workers here from Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and other places. We want to go back to our home state first. The company officials collected our identity cards like aadhar/voter ID and others saying that they needed it for arranging transport," Habib a migrant worker told IANS from the construction site.

According to him, on Sunday the company officials collected the cards and on Monday there were police personnel at the site.

"We are not allowed to go out to purchase our medicine and other items. The police are asking us for the prescription papers which are not there," Habib said.

Agreeing that availability of rations was not a major problem, Habib said all that the workers want is to go back home.

"The workers want to go back to their home state. While food is being provided by NGOs social distancing at their staying place is not being maintained," Jayaram Venkatesan, Convenor, Arappor Iyakkam, told IANS.

Venkatesan said the Arappor Iyakkam will be sending a representation to the government to help the migrant workers to go back to their home state.

"Workers at the construction site told us that the construction company had collected their identity cards on Sunday. Later police arrived at the site. On Monday too police have been deployed at the site," Balaji Sampath, Founder, Aid India, told IANS.

"They are just migrant workers and not bonded labourers. If they want to go back to their home state the Tamil Nadu government has to take necessary action towards that," Sampath added.

Earlier, on Sunday, several migrant workers took to the streets, demanding that they be sent back to their respective states.