BERHAMPUR: In search of a better life for his struggling family, 15-year-old Mahendra Sabar had left Sanatundi, a nondescript village in Gajapati’s Rayagada block. He hoped to lessen the burden of poverty by working in Andhra Pradesh which offered brighter opportunities. But destiny had a cruel plan.
Mahendra along with five other child labourers were charred to death in their sleep at a prawn hatchery, where they were engaged as security guards, in Guntur district of the neighbouring State on Thursday midnight.
On the fateful day, Mahendra had called up his family members at around 6 pm and said he was doing well and would return soon to the village. Family sources said he was supposed to return home in August to resume his studies. A student of Class X in SSD High School in Sanatundi, the teenager had to discontinue his studies last year after schools were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But unfortunately, he could not make it back.
Along with Mahendra, his friend Arun Bhuyan (15) of Sanatundi had also left for Guntur and was engaged in the same prawn hatchery. But as luck would have it, Arun survived as he was sleeping in another room of the shed which caught fire reportedly due to electrocution.
On Friday, Mahendra’s family along with members of the five other bereaved households reached the mishap site at the prawn farm in Lankavani Dibba of Guntur. Since the six minor migrants were badly charred, their bodies were cremated thereafter autopsy. Gunupur MLA Raghunath Gamang was present at the funeral of the Odia children.
Meanwhile, after Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced ex-gratia of `2 lakh each for the next kin of the deceased, his AP counterpart YS Jagan Mohan Reddy declared a financial relief of `3 lakh to the families of the six minors as they had come to the State in search of livelihood. The Andhra CM also instructed officials to ensure that shrimp farm owners paid compensation to the bereaved families. The reason behind the tragic mishap is yet to be ascertained.