Stranded Mali workers to be brought back to state

Ranchi: The state government has managed to get a commitment from a company based in Mali to bring back 33 labourers from Hazaribag and Giridih stranded in the west African country
A request to bring them back, from their family members, had reached the chief minister’s office (CMO) in December last year. According to the complaint received at the CMO, the labourers were not being paid their wages for more than three months and they had no means to return home.
Subsequently, chief minister Hemant Soren directed minister for labour, planning, training and skill development Satyanand Bhokta to take prompt action and provide all the possible help to the workers.Bhokta directed labour commissioner A Muthu Kumar to contact the Indian embassy in Mali and expedite the matter.
After establishing contact with the workers, the labour commissioner contacted Anjani Kumar, the Indian diplomat in Mali, urging him to solve the problem of the workers.
The Indian embassy in Bamako invited the company and the labourers for a meeting to resolve their issues on January 18. During the mediation conducted at the embassy, the company officials took the responsibility of paying the outstanding wages of the workers and arranging flight tickets from Mali to Ranchi for all the 33 labourers. The company also agreed to take responsibility for their stay, food and any kind of emergency arrangements till their stay in Mali. The arbitration letter was signed by a company representative and two senior officials of the Indian embassy.