Efforts under way to bring back and send workers from Kodagu

MADIKERI: The Kodagu district administration is taking efforts to bring back its residents stranded across the country back home. The officials are also making efforts to facilitate the return of nearly 1,900 migrant workers in Kodagu to their respective towns and villages.
In accordance with established protocol, all migrant will be registered online, and they will be subjected to a medical examination. In the case of inter-district movement, contractors who have employed the labourers will have to bear the charges of transporting the workers, the release by the Kodagu district administration said.
As many as 900 people are in the first batch keen on returning to their homes. The contractor in Kodagu will have to shell out Rs 54,000 for the transport of these labourers from Madikeri to Koppal district by bus. Although a single bus can accommodate 55 passengers, only 20 will be allowed to travel in the vehicle, as a consequence of which the contractor will have to cough up considerably more. If the contractor is unwilling to bear the expense, the migrant worker seeking to go home will have to pay the fare.
Senior officer in the labour department Mudiyappa M Yatnatti and Madikeri taluk tahsildar Mahesh said that the number of labourers in the hilly district who were native of other states were higher in number than those from other parts of the state.
So far, as many as 22 labourers stranded in Kodagu have been sent back home to Ballari district, said Kodagu district assistant commissioner Javaregowda.