BHADRAK: Vehicular movement on National Highway-16 came to a grinding halt for nearly three hours as hundreds of migrant workers housed in a temporary labour camp staged road blockade near Aradi Chowk here protesting sub-standard food and lack of basic amenities at the facility on Tuesday.
The agitators, who were around 1,000 in number, also demanded immediate arrangement to send them to their native places.
The migrants belonged to Ganjam, Nayagarh, Balangir, Khurda, Keonjhar and Jajpur districts and had returned from West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Chennai.
Sources said these workers had arrived in the district by train and buses in the last three days. They were housed in the temporary camp set up on the premises of Bhadrak Autonomous College.
The workers said apart from poor quality food, the camp had no toilet, drinking water and light facilities. Besides, they were not examined by health workers despite being housed in the camp for the last three days.
“We are being kept in inhuman and unhygienic conditions here. If the Bhadrak administration is unable to take care of us, we would want to be sent to our respective districts,” said one of the protestors.
On being informed about the protest, additional district magistrate Shyama Bhakta Mishra along with a team rushed to the spot and tried to pacify the irate migrants.
The blockade was withdrawn after Mishra assured the agitators that they will sent to their respective districts soon. Refuting the allegations, Bhadrak Collector Gyana Das said necessary facilities were provided to the migrant workers at the camp. Besides, the quality of food was not compromised as claimed.
“The district administration has started sending the workers to their respective districts from Tuesday. The remaining migrants will be transported to their natives places soon,” he added.