Those accommodating guest labourers without docs to be booked

Thiruvananthapuram: Police in Kerala are preparing to take action, in the form of charging criminal cases, against those who accommodate guest workers without identity documents. State's Excise department is also of the view that such labourers are to be under close observation.

It is in the context of some recent murders in which guest workers were involved, that the surveillance and inspections are being intensified. With the assessement that some of them had crucial role in the sale of narcotic substances, stateExcise department recommended that inspections in labour camps have to be strengthened.

In such instances, criminal cases will be filed against employers and agents and building owners who accommodate labourers without identity documents.

Statistics show that in Perumbavoor region, where about a lakh and a half labourers work, crime rate has been on the increase. Within the last one year alone, 4,550 criminal cases were registered, most of which involved non-Keralite labourers.

The police perception is that some with criminal background from other states arrive in Kerala in the guise of labour and indulge in criminal acts.

State DGP has also submitted a recommendation to the government that to pevent the transport of narcotics via trains, an intelligence wing of Kerala police should be formed in railway.