The Congress party on Wednesday demanded that the Telangana Government to bring back stranded gulf labour of the State free of cost. Addressing a press conference, All India Congress Committee National Spokesperson Dr. Sravan Dasoju said that the sufferings of Gulf migrant laborers have worsened after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In this regard, Sravan and TPCC NRI Cell Convener Nangi Devender Reddy wrote an open letter to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao requesting him to address the issue of gulf labour. Ministry of External Affairs says that there are more than 12-15 Lakhs of workforce from Telangana, including both men and women, in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries. It is estimated that nearly every month Rs.1500 crores worth of foreign exchange gets remitted to Telangana from these Gulf workforces, they said.
“Due to combined shock of collapsing oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic Arab Gulf economy is affected and many of the labourers are being laid off. Even if the pandemic subsides, there is likely to be a serious business crisis due to fall in oil prices and labour are likely to lose their jobs,” they said.
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While welcoming Government of India’s efforts to arrange for flights to enable the stranded labour to return to India from different parts of the world, they suggested the Government of Telangana to persuade the central government to ensure that the flight charges from GCC nation to Hyderabad are paid by the centre and the local transport from the Hyderabad Airport to their respective villages can be borne by the state government.
Congress also requested Government of Telangana to make sure that after returning to Telangana, these workers should be given ‘Return, Resettlement and Rehabilitation’ package to help them settle in their native places with dignity and decent quality of life.