By IANS,
Hyderabad : The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) will promise rehabilitation of “Gulf victims”, migrant workers in Gulf countries who have returned after losing jobs in the current meltdown.
The rehabilitation of 1.5 million migrant workers from Telangana will be the second major promise in the election manifesto of the sub-regional party which is fighting for separate statehood to the Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh, for next month’s polls.
The TRS has promised to take steps to rehabilitate thousands of migrants who returned last year after losing their jobs in the Gulf. Many of them were sent back by authorities in the United Arab Emirates following a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
TRS leader in the state assembly E. Rajendar said the rehabilitation of “Gulf victims” would be an important issue in the manifesto of other constituents of the “Mahakutami”, or the grand alliance of opposition parties – comprising the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), apart from TRS.
Rajendar said even the bodies of those committing suicides due to the financial problems were not being brought back. He wants the government to bear the expenditure of bringing the bodies back to their native places.
TRS, which fought the 2004 elections on the plank of separate Telangana, claimed that the working conditions of migrant workers settled in Gulf countries had deteriorated and called for a rehabilitation package on the lines of the one implemented by the Kerala government for migrant labourers returning from the Gulf.
The party plans to highlight the “apathy” of the Congress government during the election campaign by arranging meetings in every constituency with the family members of those who committed suicide.
About five million expatriate Indians work in the Gulf.