Migrant labourers: No way out, they trudged to Assam from Tripura

A CORRESPONDENT

AGARTALA: Eight migrant labourers from Assam who lost their jobs due to long lockdown and not finding any way to survive were returning home on foot when they were located by a police team near Ranir Bazar, 20 km away from Agartala on Sunday afternoon.

Finding the eight people taking rest under a tree, the police team, on suspicion, asked from where they have come from and where they are going. Learning their story, the police team led by officer-in-charge of Ranir Bazar Police station Soumen Das immediately took them to the nearby Jirania Inter-State Bus Terminal and arranged food for these hungry people. Their health condition were also was tested.

Receiving this information, Sub-divisional Magistrate Subhash Datta also rushed to the spot and gave Rs 500 to each of them for their immediate expenses and arranged for their lodging. Talking to reporters, he assured that some arrangement will be made to ensure that they return home to Bongaigaon in Assam.

The eight labourers – Prem Chetry, Krishna Sutradhar, Dipak Chetry, Gautam Sutradhar, Ayodhya Sutradhar, Biswajit Marak, Jank Sutradhar and Yadav Sutradhar – were engaged by a contractor for installation of a Airtel mobile tower at Maharani area in Udaipur, the headquarter of Gomoti district in Tripura.

They were working for the last four months until the lockdown was announced on March 24. The contractor after deducting their meal charges paid Rs 3,400 to each of them. After paying the rent for their stay, the labourers were finding it difficult to survive and decided to walk back home to Bongaigaon.

The government has arranged food and other facilities for such people in distress but nobody contacted them nor these labourers were aware of where to go. This forced them to walk their way back to home. They walked almost 70 km from Udaipur to Ranir Bazar and was feeling tired when the police team located them.

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