HYDERABAD: Nearly 1,000 migrant labourers gathered at the Tolichowki labour adda under the flyover on Sunday morning, demanding that the Telangana government make arrangements for them to go back home. Though the police had placed barricades around the feeder roads in the area, the workers, mostly from Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Bihar and working in the unorganised sector, surged forward.
“We are starving as we have no work. I used to work in a hotel, but many others who stayed with me worked at construction sites. Now, with everything closed, there is no way for us to earn and survive here,” rued a worker.
"The workers live across a couple of slums around Banjara Hills, Tolichowki, and Humayunagar. They all have been going back to their hometowns in small batches on foot after the lockdown extended. But with the summer being so hard, they were sent back from the checkposts, which caused them to come out and protest," noted Mohammed Faiz, a local. Approximately 4,500 workers have now registered with local police stations in the vicinity to be sent back to their homes.
Meanwhile, the police had to be called in to quell the upsurge as the aggravated workers refused to leave unless transport was arranged for them, as it was done in Lingampally. “We convinced them that they cannot travel and must stay here. We have taken down their names and details and will send them home as and when arrangements are made,”said DCP West Zone AR Srinivas.
Throng Secunderabad railway station too
A large number of migrant workers thronged the Secunderabad railway station on Sunday after a rumour about the government providing them special trains to travel to their native places was circulated on the social media. However, the railway police dispersed them. But before doing so, the police collected their details and promised them to send out communication if they arrange for special trains for them to return to their native places