VIJAYWADA: Shortage of manpower is badly affecting the construction and allied sectors ahead of election. Daily labourers in urban areas prefer election campaign works to their routine job considering less work and timely payment.
Election campaigns gained pace across the state after Election Commission of India (ECI) declared the election schedule. All major political parties are conducting public meetings, political rallies and road shows to attract the voters.
Crowd management at these rallies has become a major concern for the parties and they are relying on daily labourers. With almost 56 days left for the general and assembly elections, political parties are hiring labourers on daily and monthly wages to participate in their campaigns. Some parties are paying up to 1,200 per day or 30,000 per month for participating in campaigns. Daily labourers are getting attracted to the political parties and are refusing to do masonry work and other daily wage jobs.
“We barely get 700 per day for regular work. We are getting double payment along with food and refreshments at political campaigns. Political campaigns are conducted only in the early hours and evenings so we are not exposed to the summer heat. We have made up our mind to continue in this work until assembly elections,” said Muni Raju a migrant labourer from Giddaluru settled in Vijayawada.
Many builders in city have stopped construction works with severe labour shortage. They are estimating that the situation will become worse in next 10 days. “This phenomenon is quite regular since 2014. Political parties increased daily payments to the campaigners. We are in severe shortage of manpower and hence stopped our projects for two months,” said Aluri Prabhanjan Rao, a city based builder.
