E-Paper
Returning migrant workers not allowed to enter in Andhra’s Srikakulam
A tense situation prevailed in Dolapet in the morning, when district officials brought the migrant workers from Chennai in four buses and tried to send them to their respective houses, but the locals strongly resisted their move.
Officials in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam district faced a peculiar situation on Friday when people of Dolapet village in Rajam block resisted the return of 200 migrant workers, including several fishermen, who got stranded in Tamil Naidu during the month-long lockdown.
A tense situation prevailed in Dolapet in the morning, when district officials brought the migrant workers from Chennai in four buses and tried to send them to their respective houses, but the locals strongly resisted their move.
“They are all construction workers and fishermen who were held up in Chennai for the last two months. Though many of them belong to the same village, the locals did not allow them to be amidst us, unless they undergo quarantine for two weeks,” Srikakulam collector J Nivas told Hindustan Times.
The authorities tried to convince the local villagers that all the migrants had undergone tests for Covid-19 and they had tested negative, the villagers were not convinced. They told the authorities that they would not allow the returnee migrant workers into the village and stay amidst them.
They demanded that the migrants be kept elsewhere in the quarantine centres for two weeks before bringing them into the village. The arguments led to clashes and the police had to do mild lathi-charge to disperse the agitated villagers.
“The situation is under control now. We have managed to convince them and keep the migrant workers in the local school,” the collector said.
Srikakulam had been a Corona-free district till recently, but suddenly witnessed three positive cases on a single day on April 25, triggering panic among the people. Till Friday, the district has recorded five positive cases for Covid-19.
“Perhaps, the people of Srikakulam have become cautious after the surfacing of positive cases in the district and hence have been resisting people coming from outside,” Nivas said.
Thousands of construction workers, fishermen and other manual labourers from Srikakulam had migrated to different states. “We have started making efforts to bring all of them back to their native places in the district. We will conduct tests for all of them and send them to their destinations only if they test positive. Otherwise, we shall keep them in quarantine centres,” the collector said.
On Thursday, a 53-year-old woman, who had walked for more than 120 km to return to her house in Srikakulam from Raigadh in neighbouring Odisha state, had to undergo similar trauma.
Vavilapalli Lakshmi, a maid servant, had gone to her relatives’ place in Raighad on March 22 and got stuck there because of the sudden announcement of lockdown. After desperately waiting for over a month for the lockdown to be lifted, she started on foot from Raighad and after four days of marathon walk, she reached her house at Gujarathipet colony in Srikakulam town.
But local residents did not allow Lakshmi to enter her house though she pleaded with them, saying she had obtained a medical certificate that showed that she had tested negative for Covid-19. She underwent the tests again on their insistence and tested negative again; yet, they refused and insisted that she be quarantined for 14 days.
The hapless woman took shelter in the gram panchayat office and on Thursday, the local officials escorted her and left her at her home.
“We warned the locals against harassing her. The issue is resolved now,” the collector said.
