Over 120 migrant workers from J’khand, Raj detained while walking back home

Hrusikesh Mohanty | TNN | May 5, 2020, 04:47 IST

Berhampur: Over 120 migrant workers from Jharkhand and Rajasthan, who were placed under institutional quarantine at Kanishi on the outskirts of the Silk City, by the Ganjam district administration, were detained by police at Haladiapadara when they were walking down the national highway 16 on Monday after the end of the period of their isolation.
“The district administration had assured us of making arrangements for our transportation after the end of the second phase of the lockdown on May 3. But it did not take any steps. We want to go back to our home state at any cost,” they said.
While 120 workers belong to Jharkhand, six are from Rajasthan. They were in the quarantine centre for more than a month.
The district administration had put them up in quarantine after they were detained at the interstate checkpost near Balarampur last month. These labourers, who were engaged at a construction site at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, were forced to walk after the end of the quarantine period as bus and train services were suspended owing to the lockdown. They were put up in the hostel of a private engineering college at Kanishi.
During their stay in the house, the district administration had provided food to them. Their health check-up was also done regularly.
They are at the new bus stand at Haladiapadara at present. “We are arranging for buses to take them to their homes,” Shinde Dattatraya Bhausaheb, the subcollector of Berhampur, said. He added that at least three buses would be arranged to take the workers from Jharkhand home. For those from Rajathan, the district administration is yet to take a decision.
Meanwhile, migrant workers of other states, who were taken to quarantine centres at different places in Berhampur have pleaded to be taken back to their respective states. “The government has allowed the movement of stranded labourers in different states. There is no reason to detain us here for the last 20 days,” a labourer from West Bengal said.
Around 300 labourers from different states, including West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharastra, Bihar, Rajasthan, etc were put up in quarantine centres here.