A total lockdown may be in force in Karnataka but that has not deterred workers from Tamil Nadu, engaged in various works such as construction activities and essential services, finding transport from the inter-State border to enter Karnataka.
On the Tamil Nadu side, town buses plied to the border at the Zuzuvadi post to drop off passengers, who scurried their way by foot across the border on Wednesday to Athibelle for work.
Many workers said that they were employed in the construction sector and had decided to hitch a ride on day one of the lockdown, whilst the border surveillance still remained lax.
Construction activities, apart from essential services, have been exempted from the lockdown.
In the wake of the announcement, workers and those employed in pharma firms across the border on the outskirts of Bengaluru, got rides on the few town buses that plied up to the border.
From the border, many hitched rides on Karnataka-registered tempos and tractors to their job sites.
However, unlike the national lockdown last summer, which saw a steady stream of migrants returning to Tamil Nadu, the flurry of workers returning to their homes in Tamil Nadu was absent on Wednesday.