31 rescued from Hazaribag brick kiln

HAZARIBAG: A district administration team, led by SDO Ravi Ranjan, rescued 31 labourers, between ages five and 50, from a brick kiln at Dunagarh in Churchu late on Thursday. All the workers are from Chhattisgarh's Kosa village.
DC Manish Ranjan said he had received a petition one Antram of Kosa village at a people's court on April 24 from about the pathetic condition of the brick kiln workers beacuse the owner was neither allowing them to leave the place nor paying wages for the past five months.due to which they were facing both starvation and illness.
The DC then constituted a team to conduct raid and rescue the starving workers from the clutches of Mukhender Sahu, the brick kiln owner, and his partners Samir Khan and Ashique Khan. The three men, however, managed to escape.
The workers were then brought to Hazaribag and lodged in a community centre under strict police vigilance.
SDO Ranjan said the victims were lured by some middlemen for wages which were three to four times more than what they were getting from a government sponsored projects in Chattisgarh. FIR has been lodged against Sahu and others and raids are continuing to arrest them.
However the SDO said that since then neither they received any wages, nor proper shelter or food for more than five months due to which most of them fell ill. He said that the kiln owner never allowed them to sleep and rest and behaved with them badly when they wanted to leave. He said that they were so inhuman that they did not even spare the pregnant women and made them work.
The DC contacted hi counterpart in Champa district of Chattisgarh RPS Tyagi and informed him about the critical condition of labourers and requested him to send a team to Hazaribag for taking them back to their native place. Thec ollector of Champa responded promptly and sent to take back the rescued workersr home. The munshi of the kiln was arrested. He said that he ordered the District Mining officer, to review the operation of such kilns and see whether they are following the norms or not.