FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Following Goa being declared a ‘Green Zone’, nearly 80,000 migrant labourers, mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have registered with the Goa government to return to their native places. This move has dismayed construction and real estate sectors in the State as according to them “we took very good care of them during the lockdown period”.
Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Manoj Caculo has written to Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant stating that while this is a great humanitarian initiative, unchecked migration will have an adverse impact on some local industries, construction sector and agriculture, which depend on migrant workers.
“In fact, it has been brought to our notice that many of these migrant workers were provided with shelter, food and wages during the entire period of lockdown and they were not really stranded in the true sense of the word. However, now that they are getting a free ride to their home States, many of these workers have left their employers high and dry and are making their way to their home States,” Caculo said in the letter to the Chief Minister.
CREDAI, Goa Chapter president Nilesh Salkar believes that if there is no labour work will slow down. “We have no option but to slow down as almost all the labourers who works in the real estate sector are migrants. However, there are certain numbers of people who are second or third generation labourers who have been residing in Goa since their birth and they are likely to stay back and not move. The problem is that these migrant workers travel in a group and have a mob psychology,” Salkar said.
He further was unaware of the reason why the workers wanted to go back. “We have paid them salaries and have also looked after them during lockdown. Even the government has been supporting them. Now everyone is having a smart phone and whatsapp and part of their machinery may be messaging them and it is a pan India phenomenon,” Salkar apprehended.
Amit Chopra, president of the Goa Association of Realtors (GAR), believes that labour is the backbone of the real estate industry and if there is no labour then work slows down and market will be affected. “One cannot stop anyone if they want to go back. Activities will be slow and it will take minimum of five to six months to recover. The previous two years have been really bad for the real estate market and now with this COVID-19 lockdown and migrant labourers moving, it will slow down further. However, the rates will not go down as it is already in rock bottom,” Chopra said.
He anticipated that with the migration of labourers, new labourers will demand more wages. “In Goa all these labourers were treated well as compared to other places. However, we are worried too as those who stay back will charge more. Also, note the travel is free but if they come back they will have to pay whenever the public transportation system is restored to normalcy and it may not happen before the last quarter of the year of so. At least 60-70 per cent further slowdown will be there in this industry now,” Chopra feared.
THE CONSEQUENCES- Unchecked migration to have adverse impact on economy
