Kerala - Kochi   

Migrant labourers put police on their toes

Anand Haridas

Keeping track of two lakh workers a daunting task for the department

Kochi: The City Police is facing a daunting task of keeping track of two-lakh-odd migrant labourers in the city, in the light of some persons from outside the State being involved in acts of crime.

"It is an impossible deed to verify the details of all migrant labourers in the city," said P. Vijayan, City Police Commissioner. The police have already collected personal information provided by contractors who employ these labourers.

New measures

The police are now thinking on the lines of strictly enforcing the need for these labourers to have a certificate from their home police station stating that he/she has not been involved in any act of crime in the past. This certificate will also include a photograph for identity proof and residential address of the labourer.

"We are also planning to meet the associations for linguistic communities in the city. They can help us in identifying the nature of people who are coming into the city," said Mr. Vijayan.

It is believed that this step would serve the purpose in more than one way.

It would ensure that only those with clean histories come into the city and also enable to keep a tab on those who are using this city as hiding place after being involved in crimes back home.

This will also prevent vagabonding to a great extend, it has been pointed out.

At present, the police have been relying on the system of random checks among migrant labourers. "We collect the fingerprints of anyone found on suspicious circumstances. If this person happens to be a criminal, chances are that he will leave," said P.H. Ashraf, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Ernakulam City). This, however, is based on an assumption and is not foolproof mechanism to check criminals from operating.

But the police are relying on it, as records show that once a drive to collect details of migrant labourers was done sometime back, there was a considerable drop in the housebreaks reported from city limits.

Major impediment

A major impediment that the police are facing in handling the migrant labourers is that very few of this group have come looking for a job, while a majority has been brought in on assignments at the booming construction industry in the city. This means that the police can do little in preventing this surge of floating population.

"We cannot bring a stop to the construction work inside the city, citing the cases of outsiders being involved in criminal acts here. Also we cannot violate the right of movement for these people," said Mr. Vijayan.

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