HYDERABAD: Hundreds of TSRTC buses, packed with mostly construction workers, are entering into the peripheries of Hyderabad from the neighbouring districts of Rangareddy, Sangareddy, Medak, Mahbubnagar and Vikarabad districts. According to the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI)-Hyderabad’s general secretary, Rajashekhar Reddy, ever since the government relaxed the lockdown, construction labourers are returning to the city. “Initially, almost all the migrant labourers wanted to go back to their hometowns as everyone was panicking.
But now they have understood that it is time to return,” Rajshekhar Reddy said. “Although the labourers are returning to the city in very few numbers, we refer to it as a positive change. The migrant workers went back in thousands and are returning in hundreds,” he said. According to real estate developers, Hyderabad has needed at least 2-3 lakh labourers -- the number shot up to 4 lakh just before the lockdown -- at any given point in the last two-three years.
“I had nothing to do in the village. I do not have land either. Wages for agriculture labourers are very less. My son will be in college this year, I do not want him to do what I do,” Zaker Khan, a construction labourer from Pargi in Vikarabad district, said as got off a TSRTC bus at the Langar Houz bus stand. Another passenger, Sai Venkateshwarlu from Aloor village in Rangareddy, said: “I come to Hyderabad seasonally, just before the sowing of seeds in the monsoon, to earn for the crops I grow. This helps me survive for the rest of the year. But, this year seems difficult as I am not eligible for the government schemes. Life for me is going to be worse unless I make enough money here,” he said.