Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Friday welcomed Centre's decision to grant permission for movement of the stranded people, including migrants labourers. However, he expressed concern over migrants leaving the State which might affect several sectors across Telangana.
Speaking to , Reddy said, "I am really glad that the migrant workers who are willing to go back to their States are being provided transport facility and this was our demand since the beginning."
"In Telangana, the migrant workers haven't been treated well. We have seen disturbances in Sangareddy district, Khammam district. The things which were announced in the press meet were not happening, so the migrant workers were unhappy and were willing to go back. I feel that the trains must be arranged for them," he added.
He continued saying that Telangana Cheif Minister had said that there are 3.5 lakh migrant workers in Telangana, but in the subsequent Government announcement, they said that there are 6.2 lakh migrant workers in Telangana.
"Yesterday Mr Talas Srinivas Yadav had said that there are 15 lakh migrant workers in Telangana and there was no data compiled, they were left on their own. The Congress party thrived a lot to serve the migrant workers. The train services must be provided to take them all back. It will impact the development of the country and Telangana in particular in future,"
"Amid this unplanned lockdown, migrant workers are being pushed into the sense of severe insecurity, hunger and lack of food. The main workforce in Telangana for the last few years were the migrant workers whether it is building construction or rice milling, there are many people from Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh who provide the workforce. Now, these people are going back in an unhappy state and I am not sure if they will come back. If they won't come back what will be the future of these sectors in Telangana?" he added.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA, Ram Chander Rao also backed Centre's decision. However, he expressed concern over migrants leaving the State which might affect the economy.
Speaking to , Rao said, "Hyderabad has a lot of migrants from Jharkhand, Bihar and those people are working here. The South Central Railway started its first train for migrants to Hatia, Jharkhand and it is a welcome step. Though we feel that they are leaving the place where they were working and going to their native States might affect the economy which is the matter of concern."
"However as it was a strong desire of the migrant labourers to go back to their native States, today the Government of India and South Central Railway took a step in that direction and we must welcome this. I think even in future all the migrants who want to go to their native states will be allowed to go by all means of transportation like train, bus and any other mode of transportation," he added.
Meanwhile, Eatela Rajendra, Health Minister, Telangana said that the migrants of Telangana will be kept in quarantine once they return to the State.
"We have sent the train today after receiving guidelines from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the migrant workers were very sentimental and they wanted to go to their home states. We have today sent them to Jharkhand. We will keep the Telangtes who are coming back to our state from outside states in quarantine," he said.
( With inputs from ANI )