Vijayawada: Migrant workers to be shifted to relief centres

Vijayawada: Krishna district administration on Saturday started efforts to convince the migrant workers of other states and other districts to stay at the relief camps being arranged in the district and avoid going to their native places on foot along the two national highways.

Thousands of poor and hapless migrant workers belonging to Odisha, Bihar, Chattisgarh and North Coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh were marching on foot along with the Vijayawada-Vizag national highway with children and carrying luggage on their heads.

These migrant workers are left without work in the state and decided to go back to their homes and began long march. Several hundred other workers were also passing on the Vijayawada-Hyderabad national highway to go back to Telangana state.

The Andhra Pradesh government has already spoken to the state governments of Odisha, Maharashtra, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and other states and arranged special trains and buses to send them to their states. Some trains also left from Andhra Pradesh to other states in two weeks.

Thousands of migrant workers who were working in Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore and Rayalaseema districts were marching towards North Coastal districts and other states. Krishna District Collector Md Imtiaz on Saturday met the migrant workers in Vijayawada and other places on Vijayawada-Hyderabad highway and tried to convince them to stay at the relief centres arranged by the district administration till train or bus facility is arranged to go back to their homes in other states and North Coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh.

Migrant workers lost the confidence that the State government will provide transportation facility and decided for the long march. Donors, NGOs and leaders of political parties are donating food, drinking water and fruits to these hapless migrant workers.