Migrant labourers protest in Tamil Nadu over delay in sending them back home

Hundreds of migrant labourers came onto the streets in various parts of this metropolis on Saturday (May 2) demanding that they are sent back to their native places via train or any other mode of transport. The protests took place in Velachery, Pallavaram, Mogappair and Guindy where the migrant workers gathered in huge numbers throwing social distancing to the wind.

The protests came three days after the Centre allowed movement of migrant workers stranded in states. While neighbouring Kerala and Telangana have arranged special trains for migrant labourers to return to their native states, Tamil Nadu has not yet taken any such initiative.

The state government had on Thursday appointed senior bureaucrat Atulya Misra as the Nodal Authority to regulate the movement of stranded persons within or outside the state. The migrant workers, most of whom have not been paid their salaries for April, protested the delay in Tamil Nadu government’s decision on sending them back to their native places.

Efforts by DH to reach Misra for details on the government’s plan did not fructify. A statement from the government said people wishing to go their home state can register nonresidenttamil.org.

Hundreds of people gathered in Pallavaram and wanted the government to immediately announce the plan to take them back to their states. Similar protests were held in Guindy and Mogappair, while workers who were staying in Velachery attempted to march towards Ripon Building, the headquarters of Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC).

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Thousands of labourers from Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, and other north Indian states have migrated to Tamil Nadu for work. After the nation-wide lockdown was implemented on March 25, these workers got stranded here. Nearly 3,000 thousand workers who had hoped to catch a train to their native towns before the lockdown was announced were lodged in relief centres in the city.

Thousands of labourers are stranded in other parts of the state, especially in Tiruppur and Coimbatore.