Hundreds of Migrants Protest in Hyd

Undeterred by the lockdown norms, hundreds of migrants – mostly daily wage workers in unorganized sector – have took to a street protest in Hyderabad’s Tolichowki. Social distance has been flouted and violated at the protest. The primary demand of these migrant workers is to be sent back to their native places.

Lack of work and income, pressure from house owners for the rents, struggling for food have pushed the life of these migrant workers into difficulty. Though Telangana state government had promised 12 kg of free rice and Rs 500 per head, many migrant workers allege that the government’s aid didn’t reach them. They also rue that the house owners are pressuring them to pay rents.

Telangana state government has asked the house owners to not seek rents from tenants from March to May and asked them to postpone the rent collection. But not many owners are following the government’s request which is causing a huge burden to unemployed daily-wage labour in these Corona times.

The workers have gathered in large numbers near Tolichowki flyover and took to protest. They also did a sit-on protest on road. Learning about this, police have visited and gave an assurance of resolving their problem. The migrants who are from Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand have asked the police to make necessary arrangements to return to their native places in one or two days. Cops said they’re considering the request and asked the migrants to disburse.

Already, a special train from Telangana carrying 1200 migrants have reached Jharkhand on Saturday. However, there are thousands of migrant workers living in the city. The protested migrants live in the limits of Humayun Nagar, Banjara Hills and Golconda police stations.They were working on various construction projects in the city before the lockdown imposed on March 22nd.

Meanwhile, Telangana state DGP announced, “Dear Citizens Who Got Stranded in Telangana due to #LockDown & want to leave for their Homes in other States in India can Apply for E-PASS by submitting required information @ the given link.https://tsp.koopid.ai/epass . After due verification ur E-PASS will b sent to u,to move ahead.”