Had to go hungry for days, say migrants on return from Lanka

Ranchi: As many as 19 migrant workers from Hazaribag, Dumka and Giridih districts, who were stuck in crisis-torn Sri Lanka, arrived at Birsa Munda International Airport on Friday afternoon. The workers said they had gone to earn a livelihood in the island nation but the economic crisis in that country has led to a civil war-like situation.
Majority of migrant workers who arrived on Friday were working as fitters with Kalpataru Power Transmission Power Limited and weren’t paid salaries since February this year.The group of workers sent an SoS after the situation deteriorated in the country and they ran out of essential supplies, including food.
Talking to TOI, Prasad Mahato, a resident of Bagodar in Giridih district, said they were working on a power transmission line near Kandy. “After the Ukraine war broke out, there was a shortage of civil supplies and people were not able to procure food as the prices skyrocketed. As we weren’t paid salaries since February, it was becoming very tough for us to get ration too.”
Devendra Kumar from Vishnugarh in Hazaribag said, “People wouldn’t believe us if we say that we paid Rs 700 for green chillies while the price of rice soared to Rs 500 per kg. “We went to bed hungry hungry as we didn’t have money to buy food nor was the company paying our salaries,” said Kumar.
Asked why they did not leave the country earlier as they weren’t paid their salaries for the last three months, Vakil Mahato, another worker, said the company had kept their passports. So they had little option but to send an SoS to India.
Vakil added that after they failed to get their passports from the company, they sent out a tweet requesting the Centre and the Jharkhand government on May 2 for help. The tweet was duly noted by the chief minister’s office after which they were contacted through the Indian embassy in Sri Lanka.
On May 3, the state labour department contacted the embassy officials after which the labourers’ salaries were cleared, passports returned and they were repatriated.