HYDERABAD: Just days after migrant labourers protested at IIT-Hyderabad wanting to back home, several migrant labourers staged a protest on Saturday in Tellapur at the construction site of a well-known real estate developer.
Their demand was similar. They wanted to be sent back home by train or bus. Police officials swung into action to pacify an estimated 3,000 labourers at the site. These included migrants from West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.
Since the Central government has given the nod for construction activity to start if workers are available at the site, the labourers were told to start working from Monday. This did not go down well with the labourers who alleged that they had not been paid their full wages since the lockdown. Besides, they were given only meagre rations, forcing them to spend money out of their own pockets.
When Express visited the spot, hundreds of labourers gathered around with a unanimous demand - that the Telangana government must allow them to go back to their homes. Lallan, one of the labourers, from Bihar, said, “I came here to earn money but I spent around `3,000 from my own pocket because we were provided with insufficient rations.
We have no information of whom to contact to go back to our homes. Now we are being forced to work in such conditions.” Many of the workers at the site said they were ready to walk back home if allowed.