Labourers taking interior roads to come to Kodagu

As strict surveillance is carried out at the check posts in the district borders, labourers, especially those from other states, are finding alternative routes, skipping the check posts to enter Kodagu.

At the district borders, the measures have been tightened to restrict the entry of labourers from the neighbouring districts. Seals are applied to their hands and they are asked to remain in quarantine, in the line houses of the plantations.

The labourers from other states who are coming in search of daily waged work are denied entry at the check posts.

On Wednesday night, more than 50 people from North India arrived at the district borders. The officials prevented them from entering the district.

Meanwhile, in Kushalnagar, more than 100 labourers were allowed into the district, after applying seals and verifying their documents.

More than 50 labourers including women and small children came by bus, to the Koppa border. When the police prevented them from entering, some of them went towards Kushalnagar through the Koppa bridge by walk.

The bus driver has taken to heels and the bus was seized by Bailukoppa police. The women labourers and their children were left on the roadside.

Annappa, a hotel owner, provided them with meals during the night, in a humanitarian gesture. Officials visited the site and asked the labourers to return to their native places.

However, the labourers from other states have reached Siddapura, Suntikoppa and Gonikoppa, through various routes.

Locals found 20 labourers from Assam who crossed Teppadakandi hanging bridge, to reach Guddehosuru. The labourers were stopped by the people and were handed over to the police. The labourers had come from Koppa village in Mysuru.

The plantation owners had come near the bridge to ferry the workers in the vehicles. There was a heated argument between the plantation owners and the villagers.

The labourers were queried at Kushalnagar rural police station.

Tahsildar Govindaraj directed the officials’ concerned to carry out Covid-19 tests for all labourers, apply a seal to their hands and subject them to home quarantine in the line houses in plantations.

The locals have opposed the entry of labourers from other states into the district.