BHUBANESWAR: Around 58 labourers including four pregnant women of Odisha who were forced to work overtime without basic wages at a brick kiln in Telangana, were rescued and arrangements made to bring them back to the State by a social activist on Friday.
The activist Ranjeeta Priyadarshini of Bargarh, who received reports about the plight of labourers from locals, took the help of social media to connect to the officials concerned in Telangana and get the labourers released. The labourers belong to Balangir and Nuapada districts. They were working under inhuman conditions in the kiln at Annaram village under Gummadidala police limits in Sangareddy district. They had gone to Telangana earlier this year.
Ranjeeta, a practising lawyer of Orissa High Court, said she got information of many labourers developing flu like symptoms and were denied medical aid by the brick kiln owner. “While interacting with them, the 58 labourers including four pregnant women and their 21 children, all below 15 years, told me that they wanted to return to Odisha. They were working overtime without wages and even food and water and the kiln owner physically assaulted the men when they protested’’, said the activist who emailed letters to the CMO and Sangareddy District Magistrate for their rescue.
She also posted the letters and pictures of labourers on social media which caught the attention of Telangana administration, local NGOs and Rayagada MP Saptagiri Ulaka. The Congress MP also contacted his colleagues in Telangana and requested them to facilitate the return journey of the workers.
Following this, Sangareddy Collector ordered Gummadidala tehsildar and police to visit the spot and look into the matter.
“We visited the spot on Thursday and I asked the brick kiln owner to clear the pending dues of the labourers before they leave for Odisha,” the tehsildar, Sujatha told TNIE.Gummadidala police station’s SI Vijay Krishna said the brick kiln’s owner was warned not to restrain the labourers. “The labourers were sent back to their homes in a bus on Friday evening,” he added. Out of 79 persons, 27 will go to Balangir district and the remaining to Nuapada.