Closure of eateries: Migrant labourers return to their native States

With many eateries and catering units closing their business, migrant labourers of other States, who settled in Andhra Pradesh, have returned to their native places as they lost their livelihood due to shortage of commercial gas cylinders.

Lakhs of labourers were engaged in hotels, catering units, roadside eateries, fast food centres, sweet stalls, snacks and tea stalls in Andhra Pradesh.

According to sources, some lakhs of people from Odisha, West Bengal, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other States were eking out their livelihood by doing skilled and semi-skilled works in Andhra Pradesh.

During COVID-19 pandemic, many labourers returned to their native villages, but they resumed their works after the situation returned to normalcy.

“Thousands of women are engaged as cooks, helpers, sweets, snacks and tiffin makers in the fast food centres, catering units, hotels, biryani points and roadside eateries,” said a pushcart owner, Sivaram, who runs a tiffin centre.

“Due to shortage of commercial gas cylinders, many fast food centres have stopped their business in the food courts and eat street, forcing the labourers to leave the State,” said a biryani point owner, Durga Rao.

“We engaged 15 workers to prepare sweets in our stall. But, due to scarcity of commercial LPG gas cylinders, we have closed our sweet stall and the workers dispersed,” said a sweet shop owner, Ramakrishna of Vijayawada.

“There is no work for labourers as the ‘chat’, ‘noodles’, ‘pakoda’, ‘jilebi’ and tea stall owners have closed their business after the West Asia war crisis,” said a labourer Ram Singh of Odisha, who lost his job.

Many ‘pulka point’, ‘parata’, ‘fried rice’, ‘paani puri’ and other roadside eateries have stopped sales as there was shortage of commercial gas, and the workers were left jobless, said a pulka point owner, Purohit.

Owners of some hotels and restaurants were running with minimum menu.

Heavy rush was seen at Vijayawada, Eluru and other railway stations with many labourers going back to their native States after losing their jobs.

A few workers turned into daily-wage labourers and were seen searching for work at the ‘labour addas’.

“I worked in a fast food centre. Due to scarcity of commercial LPG, the owner has initially prepared food for few customers and later closed it. About 12 workers, including four women, engaged in the centre were rendered jobless,” said a chef S. Narayana.