Over 32 migrant labourers from Tamil Nadu were ferried from Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district and dropped off here on Wednesday. The workers were among the 42 migrant labourers, who were dropped off on the Salem-Chennai national highway before the AP government bus proceeded towards Chennai to drop off the remaining workers.
The workers were part of the construction contract labourers employed in Anantpur district. According to their accounts, they were tested and certified before they were made to board the truck that ferried them from Anantapur. The 32 workers dropped in Krishnagiri belonged to various districts including Thoothukudi, Sivaganga, Nilgiris, Tiruppur, Salem, Madurai and Dharmapuri. The remaining 10 workers hailing from Kanchipuram and Chennai were transported by the truck that proceeded towards Chennai.
The workers were first spotted on the highway by some activists and the officials were alerted. The district administration provided them with food and later shifted to the Government Men’s Arts College. They will be put up there before they are transported to the respective districts.
The district sharing borders with Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh has been seeing a steady flow of people arriving here. This has also posed concerns of reporting on the new arrivals to the authorities.
As of Wednesday, as neighbourhoods saw a sudden flow of people returning from Bengaluru and Chennai, they were also revealing of the absent mechanisms to enforce reporting of such new arrivals for COVID-19 testing.
