BHUBANESWAR: The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has summoned Odisha DGP, chief secretary apart from DG of Railway Protection Force (RPF) over chopping off both the hands of a migrant worker from Kandhamal district.
Taking cognizance of the horrific, barbaric and ghastly act narrated in the petition filed by civil rights lawyer Radhakanta Tripathy quoting media reports, the apex panel for Scheduled Tribes sought response from the three officials within 15 days.
Hands of Angad Mallick, a poor migrant tribal from Dahalapadi Sahi in Baliguda NAC of Kandhamal were chopped off by miscreants in Mumbai while he was on the way to Gujarat in search of work. Due to gross negligence and prolonged inaction by the Odisha government and the Centre, the plight of migrant workers continues as poverty alleviation schemes fail to benefit them, Tripathy alleged.
According to the petition, one Rabi Sahani of Bhagmunda village had offered work to Angad in Gujarat and paid him an advance of Rs 8,000. On April 27, Angad boarded a Mumbai-bound train with Rabi. They alighted at a railway station in Mumbai. While Rabi was busy attending a call on his phone, a group of unidentified miscreants arrived at the spot and allegedly began to assault Angad. The attack was so brutal that the youth became unconscious later he found himself in a hospital with severed hands.
Tripathy cited similar inhuman incidents faced by migrant workers. On February 8, one Samulu Pangi from Koraput district walked several kilometres with his wife’s dead body on his shoulder from a hospital in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
Another victim Sanka Murmu of Kalba village under Adaba police limits in Gajapati district had suffered injuries as the labour contractor chopped off his hand and leg last year. In 2013, the right palms of two migrant labourers were chopped off by a labour contractor and his accomplices in Kalahandi district. “The sequence of events are barbaric and ghastly in nature. Shockingly, the incidents continue unabated due lack of adequate and timely government intervention,” Tripathy alleged.
He has requested the NCST for legal action against the culprits and artificial limb for the victims along with compensation and rehabilitation. The petitioner suggested certain short term and long term measures by the government to eradicate distress migration.