For the first time, bonded labourers from outside the State have been subjected to exploitation in Gajapati district.
As many as 10 bonded labourers, who had come from Kondapalli area of Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh to work at a railway station at Palasa, are being exploited for quite a long time by a crosser unit owner of Badasoda village under the Rayagada block in Gajapati district.
One Sai Prasad engaged the workers in his crosser unit luring them with an assurance to pay Rs 500 per day. It has been alleged that Sai Prasad stopped paying wages to the labourers after just a month of their joining and used to exploit them on various grounds.
When any labourers complained against it, they got beaten up and not given food by the owner. However, on Friday night, four of the 10 labourers managed to escape from the place and reached near lanjipada. After hearing their plight, the locals informed it to Zilla Parishad chairman P lata’s husband P Prasad.
Prasad brought it to the notice of district Collector Basudev Bahinipati, who later directed deputy labour officer Sachidananda Jena to rescue the rest labourers immediately and provide a monetary assistance of Rs 5,000 to all of them from the Red Cross fund.