If Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan coined the term “guest workers” for them, the Kerala High Court has gone one step ahead by lauding the contribution of migrant workers in the development of the state, saying the egoistic attitude of most of the people prevents them from engaging in hard labour.
Justice Devan Ramachandran was considering a petition raising concern over the engagement of unregistered migrant workers, which also called for their eviction from the agricultural urban wholesale market in Nettoor.
The hearing saw the Court question whether the migrant workers were authorised to occupy this area.
However, the judge clarified that the court was not against migrant labourers in any way, particularly in view of the vital role played by them
“Malayalees are unwilling to work due to their ego. I am not against migrant workers. It is because of them we are surviving,” said Justice Ramachandran.
The court made the remark while considering a petition filed by a headload worker working at the Tripunithura office of the Kerala Headload Workers Welfare Board.
The petitioner pointed out that the traders of the Agricultural Urban Wholesale Market were engaging migrant workers without any registration under the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1979.
It was further contended that the traders have constructed additional dwellings inside the market for migrant workers to sleep, cook food, and meet their primary needs and further added that such acts were illegal and engagement of migrant workers without any registration will lead to crimes, since some of these workers allegedly using drugs, and consumed intoxicating liquor.
“We have had instances in the recent past, in the last 100 days, it has to be taken seriously. It should never happen again. There are many using narcotic drugs. You have to be very careful,” the court pointed out.
“Under what authority are these people occupying this area, any idea? I am not against them (migrant workers) at all. Where will they stay if we remove them? You tell me what has to be done. Let’s not (treat this issue as) adversarial. You tell me what steps have you taken. Three weeks to file statements and counter pleadings,” the court said.
It went on to ask the District Collector and Chairman of the Agricultural Urban Wholesale Market to inquire into the allegations made by the petitioner and to submit their findings to the Court and posted the case after a month.
As per estimates, around 2.5 million migrant workers are presently working in Kerala, most of whom hail from Bengal, North East states besides UP, Orissa and Bihar.
During the Covid pandemic, Vijayan had coined the new word “guest workers” and took special care of them.
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