Balangir, March 24: The district administration has taken an initiative to ensure that migrant workers working outside the state cast their votes at their villages.
At a meeting held yesterday, district collector M. Muthukumar asked labour contractors to recall the workers whom they had sent outside the state.
Muthukumar said: “To cast vote is a democratic right, and one should not be denied this right. Therefore, we have made this effort, so that our district’s migrant workers are not denied their voting right.” At least 40 labour contractors from Kantabanjhi, Bangomunda, Belpada and Khaprakhole of the district attended the meeting, along with labour officials of the district.
District labour officer Madan Mohan Paik said some 21,855 people had gone to other states for work. “Officially, the number of people, who have migrated to other states to work there, is 21,855,” Paik said.
Muthukumar said collectors of 19 districts of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and other states have been intimated and requested to take necessary action. “The contractors will have to bear the transportation expense of the workers. But, the district administration will send them to their villages from the railway station,” he said.
The collector said that even those, who did not have the voter ID cards, would be allowed to cast their votes. “They will be provided with voter slips and can cast their votes even if any one does not have the voter ID card,” he said.
Some labour contractors raised questions about problems if the migrant labours refused to return to the workplace. A contractor said: “We will be in deep trouble if the migrant workers refuse to return to their workplace.”
The collector said the workers would come to their villages only for five days and return after casting their vote for which they would sign an agreement. The district collector also said efforts would also be made to recall all other migrant labours, who had migrated unofficially.
Every year, over one lakh people from Balangir district migrate to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to work in brick kilns and construction companies.