Goa factories hit as Bihari workers flee

The company management, however, brushes the issue off. ‘‘Only 10 per cent of the company’s workforce were Biharis,’’ HRD manager Dnyanesh Pandhare said. ‘‘Most of the work has come to a standstill after 60 of our employees left,’’ said Shilpa Sakhalkar, an employee of Ellenabad Steels (P) Ltd said.

There was much resentment against the Biharis since they were willing to work for just Rs 60 to Rs 70 per day, far below the prescribed minimum wages. Local workers demand as much as Rs 120 per shift in addition to overtime for extra hours.

The resentment against Biharis, however, has not spread to other parts of Goa. The industrial estates of Kundaim and Cuncolim still have several Bihari workers. Local villagers feel the Biharis from Honda may have fled to these places.

The ‘‘exodus’’ comes weeks after several villages across Goa came out openly against migrants — the Priol village panchayat of North Goa had passed resolutions ‘‘prohibiting’’ Biharis and other communities from living here.

Trouble began earlier this month when a contractor with links to the BJP brought in a large number of labourers from Bihar to work at the industrial estate at Honda at less than the minimum wages prescribed under the law. The migrant labourers were also housed in unhygienic conditions. The already tense situation in the area worsened when some of the migrants teased local girls, police said.

Soon, more than 300 people from village gheraoed the local police station. ‘‘Some Bihari migrants were then taken out of their homes and beaten up,’’ a local said. ‘‘Out of fear, the Biharis are not coming forward to lodge a complaint,’’ a senior police official had said.