HASSAN: District administration has rescued Chikmagalur based 6 bonded labourers from a coffee estate in Sakleshpur taluk recently. The bonded labourers have been identified as Abhiraj [47] his wife Chandramma [45] of Nandibattalu colony in Tarikere taluk, Ajay [32] his wife Suma [27] and their sons Rohith [6] and Shaktivelu [8] of Hunasehalli village of Chikmagaluru district.
The family members were working in a coffee estate belonging to one Sunanda in Accharadi village of Hanbal for a couple of years. Abhiraj's family borrowed a hand loan of Rs 90 thousand loan and Ajay's family borrowed Rs 2.90 lakh loan from Sunanda for livelihood two years ago as per the report submitted by the assistant commissioner Sakleshpur subdivision who visited the spot based on the information recently.
In a statement, Abhiraj said that the owner of the coffee estate didn't hand them their wages and only provided food grains to eat. The owner also often verbally abused them and didn't sanction leave for any circumstances besides opposing education for Shaktivelu and Ajay. They also worked in the coffee estate from morning 6 am and 7 pm every day.
The rescued bonded labourers also said that the owner of the coffee estate never gave the statistics of wages adjusted to the loan account for two years. They were rehabilitated in government hostels.
The revenue officials led by Sakleshpur AC and DYSP raided the coffee estate and rescued the labourers. Each bonded labourer will get Rs 30 thousand in cash from the district authority as per the direction of the union government.