KHAMMAM: “Sir ji, we beg you to let us go to our native places. We don’t want any other help from you,” these were the words of some migrant labourers who were stopped by the police and revenue officials in Khammam on Sunday morning while they were walking back to their native villages in Maharashtra.
According to sources, as many as 150 labourers had migrated to Khammam from Maharashtra a few months ago in search of employment. Though they started working on farmlands, the migrants lost their jobs due to the Covid- 19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown. According to sources, the migrants have been living in a pathetic condition at Julurpad and Enkoor mandals ever since the announcement of the first phase of the lockdown on March 23. “Neither the government nor any donors approached us with any food or essential commodities.
We are not even able to feed infants,” they told Express. Despite tall claims made by the government and the authorities concerned that they were taking all steps to provide food and other necessary items to the migrant labourers who are stranded at various parts of the State, it seems as if they are all talk and no action as several migrants can be spotted heading home on foot everyday. On Sunday, when the police and revenue officials stopped the migrant labourers who were walking back home, they fell on the feet of the officials and requested them to let them go home.
Allowing us to go is the only help that the government and officials can do, they said. However, the authorities did not listen to their requests and shifted them to Mekala Bikshamaiah function hall in Khammam. Meanwhile, upon learning this, Congress district president Puvvalla Durga Prasad and the party’s Khammam town president Nagandla Deepak Chowdary alleged that the government only wanted to save the rich. The TRS government is taking steps to airlift those persons belonging to Telangana and are stuck in foreign countries, but will not do anything to ensure the safety and welfare of poor people in the State, they alleged.