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HYDERABAD: The extension of lockdown by another two weeks has added to the woes of migrant workers in Telangana , though the state government has taken certain steps to take care of them.With no money in hand and sparsely distributed aid running out, migrant workers in Hyderabad and various districts in Telangana are a worried lot.Though Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has assured that no one will starve in Telangana, aid workers say help is yet to reach a large number of workers, especially in the districts.Fearing starvation and with no transport available, a few have even set out for their respective states on foot, though public representatives and officials were trying to persuade them to stay back.According to the government, there are 3.5 lakh migrant workers in Telangana from various states. The Chief Minister on March 29 announced that it will provide 12 kg rice and Rs 500 cash to each."You came to serve this state. You are the partners in the development of this state. We treat you as our brothers, sisters and children," KCR had said while appealing them to stay on in Telangana.The government has arranged a few camps for the migrant labourers in Hyderabad and is also providing them free food.However, trade union leaders said that this has been done only at a couple of places in the city centre and that help is yet to reach a large number of workers on the outskirts of the city and in the districts.They also claimed that Telangana has 5 to 6 lakh migrant workers with nearly half of them employed in the construction sector in Hyderabad and surrounding districts.Many labourers work in brick kilns, granite rice mills, agricultural fields, construction of power, fertiliser plants, special economic zones.They are mostly from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.A trade union leader said that many workers did not get 12 kg rice and Rs 500 as they do not have ration cards or any other identity card. Since there are no records of labourers employed in the unorganised sector, and in the absence of any monitoring system, he said there was room for corruption by the officials at the field level.He said even those who received 12 kg rice can't be expected to survive only on rice. "They don't have other essentials to cook and many are facing pressure from house owners to pay the rent," he said."The best thing would have been to convert community centres and function halls into relief camps for such workers and arrange food for them besides ensuring health checkups to contain the possible spread of coronavirus . This has not been done," Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) Telangana General Secretary M. Sai Babu told IANS.He alleged that the government's approach in dealing with the problems of migrant workers is 'inhuman'."At some places they have been left to the mercy of employers. A few employers are even making them work in violation of the lockdown norms," he said.He said as per the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs , the state government should have provided funds for the migrant workers from the State Disaster Fund.The state government, however, claimed that the migrant workers are being looked after well. It is coordinating with some construction companies to ensure food, drinking water and other facilities near the construction sites in Hyderabad.On Monday, cabinet minister K.T. Rama Rao visited few such camps in Hyderabad and interacted with the workers.Rama Rao, who is the son of the Chief Minister, visited a camp in Gachibowli, where about 400 workers have been kept. They are mostly from Odisha, Bengal and Bihar. He advised them to take all precautions during the lockdown and tried to cheer them up with the hope that the crisis would be over soon.