Rohini Bachha, 70, of Tentelmunda village under Belpada block, whose son and daughter in-law are away in Andhra Pradesh working in a brick kiln and would not be able to vote on April 10. Telegraph picture

Balangir, April 8: They toil far away from home. When the country is in the midst of an election, migrant workers, who work in another state, can only watch people going to the polling stations. Their voting rights remain unexercised.

Rohini Bachha, 70, of Tentelmunda village in Belpada block of Balangir district is apt when she says: “My son Padmanava, 42, daughter-in-law and children are away in Andhra Pradesh working in a brick kiln. It has been four months since they left the village just after Push Puni (A festival in December). They are not returning to the village to cast their votes on Thursday. The brick kiln owner wouldn’t allow them leave. The labour contractors do not want them back. We too do not want to anger our employers just for a vote. What shall we get by casting a vote?”

Murali Majhi is a youth of Thudibahal village of the Belpada block and 11 members of his family, including his father and mother, have gone to work in Chennai and when their village goes to poll on Thursday they will be working in a brick kiln.

Thudibahal village wears a deserted look as almost 75 per cent of villagers work in brick kilns in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. They are unlikely return for the poll on Thursday. Nearly 1.5 lakh people migrate to the neighbouring states in search of jobs soon after harvesting paddy. They return before cultivation begins.

Murali Majhi said that it was impossible for the migrant labourers to return to the village for poll. “If all the members of my family return to our village for the poll, then we will have to spend at least Rs 3,000 which we can’t afford. The labour contractors will never spend from their pocket. Why should one come to cast vote incurring such huge expense?” he asked.

The district administration had undertaken an initiative to ensure return of the migrant workers to exercise their right to vote.

District collector M Muthukumar had convened a meeting of the labour contractors and district labour department where he had asked the contractors to recall the workers they have sent on the eve of the poll before April 10.

At least 40 labour contractors from Kantabanjhi, Bangomunda, Belpada and Khaprakhole areas of the district attended the meeting.

The initiative of the district administration have failed to yield any result as there are no report of any migrant returning to their village to cast their votes.

“I have gone to several villages of migration prone Belpada and Khaprakhole blocks in the last two days and found no migrant worker returning to their villages for the poll. To cast vote is a democratic right and one should not be denied this right. But our system has gone so wrong that our own people are away at the time of the poll and they can’t exercise their voting rights”, said Jatin Patra, an activist who works on the issues of migration.

Assistant Labour Commissioner of Balangir Saroj Ranjit said that there was no provision of monetary compensation to the labour contractors to bring back the migrant workers. “Poll is a democratic process and migrate workers have the right to participate in the democratic process. We have appealed the labour contractors to felicitate the process. We also wrote to the district collectors of Andhra Pradesh and other states to take steps at their end”, he said.