Eight villagers, residents of village Chaandan under Kasdol police station limits of Baloda Bazar district of the state, working as bonded labourers at Ganganagar of Peddapalli district of Telangana were rescued on Monday.
On the state government’s instruction, district administration had constituted a team to rescue the villagers. The team handed over the villagers to village Sarpanch in presence of their family members.
One of the villagers Roshan Mahar said that they had gone to Telangana through one broker named Kumar Belpada of Odisha to work at a brick kiln in Ganganagar.
The kiln owner used to harass them and keep them under constant watch even when they were taking bath or food, the villager said.
The owner used to allow only one person at a time to go out. The kiln owner had given them some advance but it was not sufficient to meet their day-to-day expenditures, Mahar said.
The villager further added that even after completion of the work, he did not give the wages and even prevented their return to their native village
“We were leading a life of bonded labourers,” Roshan said. Somehow the district administration was informed about our plight, which led to our rescue,” he pointed out. District administration then constituted a joint team of officials drawn from labour, police, women and child development departments and conducted the rescue operation.