Bhubaneswar: The state government has identified 11 districts - Balangir, Bargarh, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Saharanpur, Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput, Nabarangpur and Khurda - as migration prone.

In order to address the concern of the migrant labourers, the state government has installed two helpline numbers in the labour directorate to provide guidance and assistance to the migrant workers in the matters of registration, distress mitigation and rescue.

Labour commissioner Sachin Yadav said: "The toll-free number for migrant labourers working in the state is 155368, while that for Odia labourers working outside the state is 18003456703."

He was addressing a two-day stakeholders' consultative workshop on "Safety and Welfare of Inter-state Migrant Workmen in Odisha".

Yadav said tripartite meetings were held with brick kiln associations of Telangana, state officials of Telangana and Odisha to sort out the issues related to illegal migration and distress of labourers.

"The MoUs have also been signed with Odia associations in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Chennai for proactive collaboration for safety and welfare of the migrant workmen to these states," Yadav said.

The state government has also set up the help desks for migrant Odia workmen in the destination states such as Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Delhi.

Inaugurating the workshop, chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi said the government would implement second phase of the work plan up to 2020 to address the migration issue.

Padhi asked all the stakeholders to work out an integrated and intensive work plan for minimising the distress migration in 30 migration-prone gram panchayats of Balangir and Nuapada districts. The department was also asked to extend the activities to other 11 migration-prone districts.

He asked the department to develop the second phase of the work plan on the basis of the learning, experiences and feedback received during the first phase of action from 2014-15 to 2017-18.

"The liaison officers at the destination states have a very crucial role to play in rescue of the workers in distress. They should be trained and oriented accordingly," the chief secretary said.

Labour secretary Anu Garg said the work plan would focus on regulation of voluntary migration, education and care of the children of migrating families, rescue models, integration of help desks with various enforcement agencies and departments, application of technology for instant transmission of messages and quicker action.

"Wide Information, education and communication activities through folk media in the migration-prone areas would be another important aspect of the action plan," she said.

Programme Design of Tata Trust director Nayantara Sabavala and Tata Trust regional director Jitendra Patnaik also addressed the inaugural session.

The state government has entered into an MoU with Tata Trust for joint action to promote safety and welfare of the inter-state migrant labourers.