COVID-19: K’tka govt accused of not allowing migrants to return from Goa

Team Udayavani, May 7, 2020, 6:03 PM IST

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Panaji/Bengaluru: The Karnataka administration did not allow over a hundred migrant workers to return to the state from Goa, a senior official claimed here on Thursday.

The labourers, allowed by the Goa government to return to their state amid lockdown, were refused permission to enter Karnataka on Wednesday night, said the Goa government official.

The labourers then camped in Campal area of Panaji for the night.

“What is happening @BSYBJP? Are you going to intervene? This is a matter concerning the self-respect of Kannadigas and will not be taken lying down,” Congress spokesperson Brijesh Kalappa tweeted.

The senior official in Panaji claimed the Karnataka government was refusing to admit inside its borders those who do not have proof of residence in Karnataka.

“Some of them have Aadhaar cards issued in Goa while voting card is from Karnataka,” he said, adding that wherever documents were not in order, the government of the neighbouring state did not allow people to cross the border.

The Goa government was in contact with Karnataka authorities and trying to streamline the process so that migrant labourers who want to return to Karnataka can do so, he added.

More than 80,000 migrant labourers -majority of them from Uttar Pradesh, have registered with the Goa government to go back to their native states, as per the officials.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had announced earlier that two special trains would be run to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to ferry these labourers.

On Wednesday, Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik had alleged that BJP-led Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka governments were adopting uncooperative attitude in taking back migrant workers from their states.