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HYDERABAD, Nov. 28

THERE has been a steep increase in migration of farm labour from the border districts of Andhra Pradesh to neighbouring States. This is causing concern for the local administrations in these States, which needs to be immediately addressed, a senior leader and former Minister in the Congress Government, Mr M. Sashidhar Reddy, has said.

Desperate for work due to widespread drought in several districts of the State, farm labourers are migrating to neighbouring States and are taking up work for just about Rs 40 a day as against Rs 60 which is the normal wage.

This has resulted in protests by local leaders against the influx of labourers from Andhra Pradesh in neighbouring Karnataka, Mr Reddy said.

Citing the case of former Karnataka Labour Minister, Mr S.K.Kanta, who recently led a rally in the Gulbarga district of Karnataka and gheraoed the district collectorate as a part of the agitation to protest against the influx of labour from Andhra Pradesh, Mr Reddy said that this reflected the alarming state of affairs in terms of generating employment in the State, which has been particularly accentuated by the failure of monsoon this season.

The State administration's failure to help people affected by successive droughts, which apart from forcing many farm hands to migrate, has also led to suicides.

This had resulted in the State's dubious distinction of recording the highest number of suicide deaths by farmers in the country, Mr Reddy said.

Highlighting the need to streamline the mechanism to generate employment through the food-for-work programme, Mr Reddy said the Central Government has to closely monitor the functioning of this scheme so that adequate employment could be generated locally and also curb migration. Further, he said that the State Government had to focus on the irrigation projects to support various backward regions in order to ensure that farm workers did not migrate in panic.

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