Vedanta Group Chief Anil Agarwal raises concern over Chopping of Labors hands issue in Odisha’s Kalahandi district. Mr. Agarwal Tweeted on “Chopping of Labors hands issue in Kalahandi”.
Mr. Agarwal in his Tweet said that, “It is paradox that Kalahandi, a Bauxite/mineral rich and labor intensive district in India, witnessed inhuman act of chopping hands of labors.” It should be noted that the hands of two migrant bonded laborers were chopped off in the Kalahandi district just because they refused to work.
Basically the economy of Kalahandi District depends on the foundation of the industries. Even though the District is mineral rich area with full of Bauxite, Graphite, Manganese, Iron and Quartz which can largely facilitate the growth of industrial sectors in this area and can also be supported the economy of Kalahandi and stop the migration of labors in the area. Thus the huge storage of minerals supports the economy of district but all these deposits are still unutilized. The mines in the post independence period are nationalized, but still unutilized to encourage the proper utilization of these natural resources.
The laborer, Dialu Nial is just 19 years and Nilambar Majhi is 35 years old. On 15th October a labor contractor Parame and five of his associates had kept Dialu and Nilambar captive for a week in a house, took them to a nearby jungle in Kalahandi district and chopped off their right hands one by one. They had taken Rs 14,000 each from the contractor but refused to go to work in a brick kiln in Andhra Pradesh.
While they were moving to Andhra Pradesh in train, the dispute aroused between the contractor and the laborers over the distribution of the paid money .The 10 of them got off from the train. Dialu and Nilambar were left back in the train and were taken captive by the labor contractor. The contractor made phone call to Nilambar’s family and demanded Rs. 2 lakh for their release and threatened to kill them if they failed to give the amount. The family pleaded them to release them and told him that they are too poor to pay the amount. The next day the family lodged a complaint before the local police station, SP, Collector and the district labor officer with a written statement having the mobile numbers of the labor contractor. Two days later their hands were chopped off.
