Police resorted to lathi-charge as hundreds of migrant workers of Chhattisgarh and other states reportedly turned violent at Mangalagiri town in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district on Friday, demanding that they be sent back to their home states.
Tension prevailed after the migrants turned violent during the protest at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Mangalagiri.. They barged into the security office at the construction site and ransacked it.
Policemen in riot gear entered the campus and used force to chase away the protestors.
More than 3,000 construction workers from Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh working at the AIIMS site have been demanding that they be sent back to their states.
They staged the protests alleging that the officials were not making any transport arrangements despite an assurance given three days earlier by the local authorities. The officials tried to pacify them by saying that since Guntur district is a Red Zone, their states were not giving consent for their travel at this stage.
However, the migrant workers continued their protest and at one point it took a violent turn. Several blocks are under construction at AIIMS Mangalagiri. The foundation stone for the facility was laid in 2018.