JAISALMER: A large number of labourers who had come to the canal area of Jaisalmer to take up harvesting jobs were forced to leave by their field-owners as "the work had got over". Their situation turned desperate after the lockdown was extended till May 3.

As their means to survive started depleting by the day, the labourers, mostly from Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, decided to walk back to their villages. Desperate in search of food and water, they lost their way and reached the Indo-Pak border. The agricultural fields they would have worked in are only 4-5km from the border.

O n Thursday, some 51 labourers reached a border outpost of the BSF's 119th battalion. The jawans and officers offered them food and asked them to go to the camps set up by the Rajasthan government.

BSF officials said though they sympathise with the labourers, their arrival at the border posts is "a reason for worry". If even single labourer is carrying the virus, it could pose a "threat" to the jawans and the security system at this sensitive area, said an official.

The jawans have been directed that if labourers come in search of food and water then he should be given some provisions and must be asked to leave immediately, BSF Rajasthan frontier DIG M S Rathore said. Jaisalmer district collector Namit Mehta said he has directed his officers to bring the labourers to the camps set up by the state government.



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