Guest workers walk home, take interior roads to avoid cops

Guest workers walk home, take interior roads to avoid cops

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai:  11.05.2020

With no response for registrations in the state government portal (www.nonresidenttamil.org) last week, guest workers from Chennai are now walking back home. To avoid check posts, the migrants take interior roads of villages to cross district and state borders.

Sirajudeen, a 24-year-old worker from Chennai who is travelling to Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, by foot along with 32 others on Saturday, said they were taking interior roads to skip Padianallur toll gate.

They were working in sawmills and paint industries here for a year and registered with the portal as soon as it was launched. However, they haven't received any update.

“Trucks can transport us to Vizag’s outskirts if we pay them ₹1,000. We aren't sure if we can pay for the remaining 100km journey,” said L Tirupathy, a construction worker, who left Kasimedu on Sunday as the government camp they resided in ran out of food.

While this was the ordeal of registered workers, hundreds residing in Velachery struggle to get their registrations approved. “The police provided contact numbers. However, they are never answered,” said V Charukesh, a volunteer from Chennai aiding migrants with the online registration process.

TOI on Sunday contacted emergency numbers (of IAScadre nodal officers) released by the government to facilitate movement of workers to Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The calls went unanswered.

“The government could have sent migrants home efficiently by operating all available buses. But it just created a portal for namesake and is running only limited trains,” said CITU President A Soundararajan.

Data suggests 2.5 lakh workers registered to go their natives from Tamil Nadu. A train trip can ferry only 1,130 workers. There are 21,000 unused government buses in TN. Calculations revealed they can ferry 8 lakh workers out of the state a day.

“Most industries, that have employed these migrants have also not expressed much support. In fact, some have even threatened to not release pending salary dues,” Soundararajan added.

LONG WAY HOME: Guest workers walk along GNT Road near Red Hills to reach Andra Pradesh as police intensified checks along borders