'Anti-social conspiracy': Kerala CM Vijayan on migrant worker protests across state

Hundreds of migrant workers had taken to Kerala streets yesterday

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan talking to media in Thiruvananthapuram | Manorama Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan talking to media in Thiruvananthapuram | Manorama

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan dubbed as "unfortunate" the mass protests by migrant labourers across the state, claiming that there were "anti-social elements" at play. He said all measures have been taken to ensure that the guest workers are properly accomodated in the state. "Kerala has always kept its warm vigil in taking up the issues of guest workers. We have arranged food and medical facilities for them when the corona transmission began disrupting their job prospects," he wrote on Facebook. 

Hundreds of migrant labourers had taken to the streets at Paippad in Kerala's Kottayam district on Sunday, defying the lockdown demanding transportation to their home states. The migrant labourers, who had been residing around Paippad, gathered at the town centre at around 12:30pm. Police teams have arrived at the spot and attempts are on to disperse the crowd.

Talking to Manorama News, Food and Civil Supplies Minister P. Thilothaman said that immediate measures will be taken to resolve the issue after communicating with the district administration. Kottayam district collector is likely to hold a discussion with the protesters soon. Minister Kadakampally Surendran said that attempts will be made to arrange special trains or buses after consulting with the concerned authorities.

All across the country, there has been a rush of migrant labourers attempting to head back home after a national lockdown was imposed owing to the coronavirus. Workers from states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, who worked in areas like Mumbai and the national capital, found themselves in the literal deep end of affairs. Left with no means to earn a living, they were forced to undertake long journeys on foot to their far-flung homes in the absence of any means of transport. Most of them had to walk hundreds of kilometres to reach their hometown; it was only a day back that the Uttar Pradesh government announced that it has arranged 1,000 buses to ferry migrant labourers stranded at the border districts.

Full Facebook post:

In an unfortunate turn of events yesterday, we saw guest workers in Payippad of Kottayam district assembling and thus violating all restrictions during the lockdown. It was totally unnecessary at a time when the whole nation is fighting Covid-19 using all possible measures. Kerala has always kept its warm vigil in taking up the issues of guest workers. We have arranged food and medical facilities for them when the corona transmission began disrupting their job prospects.

More than 1,70,000 guest workers are accomodated in around 5000 camps across the state. Strict orders were issued to District Collectors to follow up on these and take immediate measures to redress flaws.

The coinage "guest workers" itself shows our warm vigil towards interstate migrant labourers in Kerala. There are generally no such difficulties for them here. But the gathering at Payippad shows that many other anti-social elements are at play to disrupt the social harmony of our state. We will identify them after a through investigation.

Not even the guest workers, is allowed to come out and gather at public places now. Our Prime Minister had already told us to stay back wherever we are and support the lockdown. So everyone knows that we are helpless but to deny demands of these guest workers to go back. We have to identify those who instilled false hopes and spread fake information among them, even at a crisis situation like this. It is usually the responsibility of the contractors to ensure adequate accommodation and food for guest workers. But the government has realised that these facilities were given only for the time after their work and decided to shift them to more comfortable camps considering the situation. We also made sure they get quality food. Orders were given to District Collectors to provide their native food considering their demands. The state has also provided provisions for those who wanted to cook for themselves. All arrangements were made to avail medical help to them. The government is arduously making sure that they do not face any kind of difficulties at a situation like this. Despite all these, the attempt to instigate them and thereby create a law and order situation is a move against this state.

The Payippad incident has generated sharp response across the state. The whole state rebukes the move of people assembling by violating all reasonable restrictions as a blot on the spirit of this fight against Covid 19. Our land, which is doing an exemplary work on this regard, can not accept this. Strict actions will be taken against such antisocial conspiracies in future. We will address all issues of guest workers and rectify failures if pointed out. We will not loosen our warm vigil for guest workers in any manner. All the announced welfare measures will be implemented in its entirety. We request all the guest workers in the state to understand the reality, not to panic and fall prey to such conspiracies in future. Clear indication on the antisocial elements who had tried to take advantage of the situation and thereby created incidents like Payippad have come out. We even kindly urge them not to misuse this situation anymore and jeopardise the harmony of the state. Please do not hurt our land for your petty gains. The government will do everything to make sure they face the law of the land without any fail.

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