Odisha polls: Get migrant labourers back for vote, Bolangir collector tells contractors

Balangir, Mar 25:

Bolangir collector discussed the issue of the return of migrant workers from the district to their villages to take part in the coming elections with registered labour contractors engaged in export of labourers (dadan workers) to other states here today.

The collector advised the contractors to persuade the employers to allow the labourers sent by them to return to their villages for a brief period to exercise their franchise.

The agents however, said that they can get them back for casting their votes only if they want to do so and can’t help if they decide otherwise.

The district labour officer (DLO), who also participated in the meeting, told reporters that the Collector had in the meeting, said that there was enough work in the district to sustain these labourers but it was an age old habit of them to go to other states as dadan workers.

He said the collector has written to his counterparts in other states to facilitate the release of these labourers from their employers for a short period to visit their villages to cast their votes in the ensuing polls.

Knowledgeable sources however, were not very optimistic over the collector’s efforts to get the dadan workers to vote in the ensuing elections as most of the dadan workers from western Odisha were sent to outside states by unregistered labour contractors or labour sardars or dalals.