The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Migrant workers want to vote

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 24, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Migrant workers want to vote

Special Correspondent

"A ministry should be created to look after affairs of non-resident Tamils"

CHENNAI: Migrant labourers have demanded that they be allowed to vote in the Indian embassy in the country in which they are employed.

In their election manifesto released in Chennai on Saturday, representatives of migrant workers and those who have returned home reiterated their right to vote during the May 8 Assembly elections. They have also demanded that a ministry be created to look after the affairs of non-resident Tamils, on the lines of the one functioning in Kerala. The ministry should safeguard the interests of migrant workers, especially those in the Gulf, Malaysia and Singapore, and create an environment for safe, meaningful re-integration. Another demand of the labourers, who had been bilked by agents of large sums, was that the Government take action against erring middlemen.

Awareness should be created so that contract labourers or their employers could take insurance before leaving home, said Bernard D'Sami of Arunodhaya Migrants Initiatives.

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