Border Roads Organisation will recruit nearly 12,000 workers from Jharkhand and the first batch of 1,500 will leave Dumka on Friday.

“The first train carrying 1,500 labourers from Santhal Pargana will leave Dumka on June 12,” Dumka deputy commissioner Rajeshwari B. informed in a tweet on Tuesday evening, adding that a meeting was held and the station inspected “to ensure that the whole process is smooth & hassle-free.”

“Every desirous individual will be registered as migrant labourer by the labour department, ID cards issued, sensitised about the benefits of working in the projects, helpline created to register their grievances if any. No middleman will interfere in the process,” she further said in another tweet.

She added that block development officers would act as nodal officers for registration of workers at the block level.

The resumption in recruitment marks the end of an impasse that followed the Jharkhand government’s withdrawal of permission to BRO for hiring workers from Santhal Pargana for its projects in Ladakh, Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

The permission was rolled back in the last week of May, citing the possibility of extension of the fourth phase of lockdown.

It is now clear that the decision was taken after chief minister Hemant Soren met the stranded workers at the Birsa Munda Airport after they were flown in from Leh by the state government on May 29 and learned about the problems they faced there.

“National security is our priority and at the same time we have prioritised that the honour, dignity and the rights of our workers are guaranteed while serving the nation,” Hemant had tweeted then.

According to government sources, a team of officers took up the matter with the BRO which, in a written consent, agreed to give full benefits to the workers and also comply with conditions laid down in the Inter-state Migrant Workmen Act 1979 and the Workmen Compensation Act 1923.

These workers will now get around 20 per cent hike in their wages besides medical facilities, clothing, travel allowances, security at workplace and housing facility, informed a release issued by the state information and public relations department.

The BRO said no middleman was involved in the recruitment process as was alleged and the wages were being deposited in the bank accounts of the workers.

It also agreed to register itself as an employer and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Jharkhand government after obtaining necessary approval from the Union defence ministry.

Following this, the state government permitted the BRO to go ahead with the recruitment.

Since 1970s, labourers from Santhal Pargana have moved out of the state to work for road construction projects of the BRO twice every year.

Migration from Santhal Pargana has a long history, beginning around 1860 when around 1 lakh people, mostly tribals from the present-day Jharkhand, were taken to tea gardens in Assam as indentured labourers.

People from the region have since then been stepping out to work in farm houses and brick kilns.