M. Ilango (20) of Melkanavayur in Polur taluk jumped out of the vehicle in which he was taken to Tirupati and walked down the hill in the dead of night. P. Sekar (55) of Kollamedu village broke his bus journey to Tirupati on seeing some of his fellow passengers being whisked away. A. Balachandran (29) of Arasanatham village missed the bus to Tirupati while he visited a Tasmac bar. Death bypassed all the three by a whisker.
The trio, who were being taken for cutting red sanders in Andhra Pradesh, are now in Madurai to record their statements as witnesses to the gruesome killing of 20 woodcutters on April 7.
These farm workers do not have any employment around their villages in Tiruvannamalai and Dharmapuri districts due to water scarcity and are in the habit of going to Kerala, Puducherry, The Nilgiris and Chennai for contract work in construction industry.
They are victims of an organised network that engages labourers through relatives and friends, as in the old camp coolie system.
Ilango accompanied his friend Panneerselvam, who was one among the 20 victims.
Sekar was hired by his relative Mahendran, who was killed in the encounter. Balachandran was used as a sub-agent by a stranger, Palani, to “hire workers for Puducherry”. All the seven persons organised by Balachandran, including his father and brother’s father in-law, are dead now.
All of them claim that they never knew that they were being hired to cut red sanders. They were simply asked to board buses at different destinations in the night. “I was promised a wage of Rs. 500 a day in Puducherry with which, I thought, the school fees for my two children could be paid,” said Balachandran.
Sekar was under the impression that he was being taken to Chennai for construction work. “I could identify the place from where I escaped as Tirupati only from the temple,” said Ilango.
These workers, albeit owning pieces of land, hail from villages that are poor in basic amenities.
“We have to walk several kilometres to reach the nearest town from our tribal village. That is why I have shifted my family to the town,” said Balachandran. They do not get enough work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
Creation of water sources for irrigation, roads, schools and hospitals would prevent temporary migration of labour, they said.
