Hundreds from city walk home

Since Thursday night, migrant workers were stopped at the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border and were asked to return to the place where they were staying. The workers, who had reached Nellore and Sulurpet, were brought in vehicles and dropped at the inter-State border on Friday, said Himakiran, one of the volunteers providing food to the workers.

“We have been providing food for the migrant workers on foot and cycle through our network of volunteers. From last night, we have been receiving calls from the workers that Andhra Pradesh police stopped them and transporting them back to the border. Over 1000 workers were stranded. The workers have resorted to walking as the last resort after running out of money waiting for the train,” he said.

To a query on migrants walking to their homes in North India, Corporation Commissioner G Prakash told reporters that the workers walking home was not a general phenomenon but restricted to one or two people.

Meanwhile, police on Thursday intercepted a container lorry near Sriperumbudur which was carrying as many as 38 migrant workers to Uttar Pradesh. Oragadam police and local revenue officials arrested the driver when they found workers being dumped inside a lorry.