TV
Bhawanipatna: The body of a woman migrant labourer of Kalahandi district arrived at her native village Balipada on Saturday from Paidapalli in Telegana.
Sources said the deceased, identified as Surya Bag of Balipada village of Narla block had gone with her husband Jitendra and three children to work as migrant labourers in a brick kiln at Paidapalli in Karim Nagar district in the neighbouring Telengana after Nuakhai. Besides, 25 families of Balipada village had also gone there for work as migrant labourers.
The family was taken by Mujib Khan, a broker of Lathore area in Khaprakhol block in Balangir district by paying the yearly advance money of Rs 17,000 each to the couple.
After working in the brick kiln for some days, the owner used to offer the family a monthly wage of only Rs 250.
The incident took place on December 2 when Jitendra’s wife could not go to her workplace as she fell sick. As her husband informed this to the kiln owner, three supervisors came to his house and forced Surya to work. As she refused, the trio severely thrashed the couple for nearly two hours. They also kicked Surya at her stomach and abdomen.
Surya, who sustained severe injuries, was later admitted to a hospital at Paidapalli where she succumbed to her injuries on Friday morning.
Following the incident, Karim Nagar district administration conducted the post mortem of the deceased and made arrangements for sending the body to her native place in an ambulance van with an ex-gratia cheque of Rs 70,000.
On the other hand, acting on a complaint by the husband of the deceased, Paidapalli police arrested Shyam Seth, owner of Venkateswar Brick kiln and his three supervisors on Saturday.
Talking to the media on Sunday, Narla IIC Ullas Majhi said the local police have rescued the remaining families of Balipada village from Paidapalli who are being brought in a train.
Contacted, Narla BDO Kailash Chandra Sial said he has handed over Rs 10,000 to the family of the deceased from the District Red Cross Fund and Rs 2000 under Harischandra Yojana to perform the last rites of the deceased.
He further said the families, who had gone to Telengana for work, are not the original inhabitants of Balipada and they move from place to place in search of work.
He also informed that if these families will stay in the area permanently, the district administration would make permanent arrangements for them by providing with all benefits under the state and Centrally sponsored schemes like Mamata, MGNREGS, Harishchandra etc.
“I can make elaborate arrangements to provide work to these families under MGNREGS if they register their name in the Gram Panchayat and apply for a job card”, Sial said.
