Punjab: Nearly twenty percent migrants change mind to return

AMRITSAR: Industrialists here have joined hands to stop migrant workers from leaving and have instead approached government seeking more concessions to open their shut industrial units while assuring to adhere to the coronavirus prevention norms as advised by the government even as nearly 800 migrant workers went to their native places on board Shramik special train that left to Gonda from Amritsar on Thursday.
"We have been holding a marathon round of meetings with industrialists, representatives of migrants and district administration and as a result minimum of twenty percent of migrants have dropped their plan to move back to their native places", said MLA from Amritsar North assembly constituency Sunil Dutti while talking to TOI adding that even district administration officials , during a meeting, had confirmed that nearly twenty percent migrants had dropped their plans since factories had resumed their operations.
He said minimum of five to six big industries situated on the outskirts of Amritsar having more than three hundred employees each have resumed their operations and as a result migrants had also changed their mind to go back .
To buttress the claims of Dutti, president of Uttar Pradesh Kalyan Samiti Rambhawan Goswami said. "I think around ten thousand migrants have changed their mind and will not be going back”. However he said ten thousand figure out or nearly fifty thousand was too less and the industrialists as well as administrations required to do more to stop them.
President of Dying and Processing Association K K Sharma said that there were certain confusions among industrialists which needed to be cleared. He said nobody had forced migrants to not go back but they themselves had seen industries reopening.
“Going back to homes leaving their jobs will only give a body blow to the state’s economy as well as migrants “ said he.
Dutti claimed that he had held meeting with over one hundred small , medium and big industrialists who had assured to follow all the corona virus prevention norms as well as making stay arrangement of labour in the factory premises .