Bolangir: Acting on a tip-off, a police team rescued as many as ten migrant labourers including three children while they were being trafficked to work at brick-kilns in Hyderabad Monday.
A team of police of Khaprakhol police station intercepted the vehicle ferrying the labourers and rescued them. Meanwhile, a middleman taking the labourers also was detained for interrogation after he failed to produce necessary documents.
The rescued labourers are residents of tribal villages in Bargarh district and were being taken to Hyderabad of Telangana through Bolangir railway station to evade police.
According to sources, the opera memorandum of the middleman is to lure the labourers of heavy wages to work in Telangana. They then pay some money in advance, so that the labourers won’t deny from going to work in the brick-kilns.
If the labourers deny, the middlemen threaten them with dire consequences. Later, they take them and make the labourers work under extreme condition without salary. Sometimes, the brick-kiln owners inflict mental and physical torture on the labourers.
Many people of Western Odisha have fallen prey to the middlemen and are forced to work under extreme condition without salary and even food.
On the basis of a tip-off, the police team led by Khaprakhol IIC made arrangements to send back the workers to their village.
“We received a tip that a middleman was taking the people to work in Hyderabad. We intercepted the vehicle near Bada Gurjibhata village and asked for necessary documents to the middleman. However, he could not produce the documents following which he was detained along with the driver of the vehicle for questioning,” Khaprakhol IIC said.
We have contacted the Bargarh district administration and will make necessary arrangements to send back the workers to their village, he added.
When questioned, the villagers said that there was no source of income in the village. So, they were forced to work as migrant workers in other states.
The government has announced schemes to provide work to all villagers for 3 months. But, the negligent attitude of the officials concerned has limited the scheme in only pen and paper.
PNN