SIDDIPET: It seems as if no matter how hard the officials try to bring normalcy during this pandemic times, chaos will find its way to erupt.
Despite various measures taken by the State government and the authorities concerned to ferry the distressed migrants back to their native places in various states, the officials are still unable to pacify the labourers and get them wait for their turn to travel back.
According to sources, scores of migrant labourers, who had been working at Mallanna Sagar and several other irrigation project sites, are now making rounds of various government offices and police stations at Thogita and Gajwel areas seeking official help to return home.
However, the authorities are trying to pacify the workers and make them understand that it will take time as it is a nationwide-official process. According to sources, as many as 9,000 migrant labourers work at various irrigation projects in the erstwhile district, including Mallanna Sagar.
When some migrants work at construction sites, some work as drivers, crane operators and even mechanics. After learning about various hardships faced by them and Express interacted with a few migrant labourers on Tuesday at their houses near Vemulaghat, during which they explained their sufferings. "We have not been earning any money since the announcement of the nationwide lockdown during mid-March as all the works came to a standstill," one of the migrant labourers told Express.
Rahul Singh, hailing from Jharkhand, Mahesh Kumar and Manoj Chaudhary, hailing from Madhya Pradesh and Sanjay, of Uttar Pradesh, said that they were able to survive in these dire times only because their contractor has been providing them food ever since Day one.
"We don’t know how long the lockdown will continue. We are unable to live in this situation. Hence, we wish to go back to our native villages," the migrants said. Meanwhile, they alleged that their contractor has not paid the salary for the work they did till March 21.
Speaking to Express, a migrant labourer named Shiva Prasad, belonging to Madhya Pradesh, said: "I have a wife, four children, father and mother back home. I hail from a very poor economic background. Though I used to earn Rs 12,000 every month, the situation has not been the same since the commencement of the nationwide lockdown. I have not been able to sent any money to my family since then. They are living in dire straits now." Meanwhile, the construction of the State government’s ambitious Mallanna Sagar project is getting delayed due to court cases.
However, the officials expect to resume the work by May-end before the commencement of monsoon. Meanwhile, the deputy engineer of the project, S Venkateshwar Rao, admitted that the irked migrant labourers, hailing from states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, have been mounting pressure on the officials to send them back home. We have informed the higher-ups about the situation and will take measures as per their directions, he added.