Not helping matters is a report carried on Wednesday by Yashobhoomi — a Hindi daily popular with the migrant labourers — highlighting the atrocities that are still being perpetrated against north Indians, leading to their exodus from Pune and Nashik. The most damaging part of the report is a blurb: “25 Farvary tak Maharashtra chodkar chale jane ka ultimatum,” citing some notices that had allegedly been put up in parts of the city.

When contacted, Yashobhoomi editor Anand Shukla confirmed from Mumbai that Yashobhoomi had carried the news after speaking to the migrants and their relatives about the ultimatum. “I received calls from some Pune activists saying they’d seen no such notices in the city. Now, we will be publishing a clarification that no such notice has been seen.”

A group of contractors, who had come to the Pune railway station to take part in the initiative by Rashtriya Ekatmata Samiti, led by veteran leaders Mohan Dharia and Baba Adhav, exhorting the throng of north Indian commuters not to flee the city out of fear, confirmed that several of their workers had already left the city.

“Over 30 labourers who worked in my furniture workshop have fled, leaving behind their wages as well as the house deposit. These migrants who never read a newspaper or watched television have started following every update, which has only aggravated their fears,” said Ramsakal Vishwakarma, a native of Uttar Pradesh, who owns a shop in Warje.

And the labourers have been feeding on the fear factor, fuelled by sensational media coverage. Rural Superintendent of police Vishwas Nangre Patil said, “The Chatth Puja celebrations in Mumbai scheduled for February 25 are likely to be attended by Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, which is expected to cause unrest. The people here are apprehensive about the repercussions spreading to Pune. Media reports are adding fuel to the fire.”

According to Nangre Patil, the situation has taken turn for the worse as the local labourers are feeling the pinch with migrant labourers ready to work for half the price demanded by the locals.

“The police have been asked to patrol all industrial areas in the district to provide protection to north Indians as there are reports of many of them leaving the district leading to bad impact on the industries,” district collector Prabhakar Deshmukh told reporters.

The police have been asked to arrange meetings in Talegaon, Rajangaon, Hinjewadi and Paud to stop north Indians leaving the state. There have been complaints of threatening calls to the north Indians to leave the state by February 25, he said.

“The police have been asked to take action against the media if they add to the panic by spreading rumours,” he said.

According to an estimate, 60 per cent of the north Indian construction workers have fled from Pune and feeling the heat more than any other sector are the builders and the managing committee of Promoters and Builders Association of Pune (PBAP) is going to meet the police commissioner on Friday in this regard.

A senior PBAP member confirmed this, saying: “In many areas the construction work has come to a standstill for the last few days. Many north Indian workers have already fled. We will be demanding certain measures by the police so that they can come back.”