A group of 150 migrant workers, working in a brick kiln, who wanted to leave for their hometowns, were assaulted by their employer and his agents in Tiruvallur on Monday. The Vengal police have registered a case.
According to police, Munusamy runs a brick kiln in Pudukuppam in Tiruvallur district. Over 300 workers from Balangir district in Odisha were working for him. “As business has been poor due to the lockdown, they were not paid proper wages and relief did not reach them properly,” said K. Krishnan from the Foundation for Sustainable Development.
For the past few days, there has been some unrest amongst the workers, after they heard about many others from their States walking back to their homes. “On Monday night more than 150 persons, including women, the elderly and children, decided to leave and started walking. However the owner, his son and other agents stopped them. An argument ensued and in due course, the workers were assaulted by some goons. A few of them, including women, sustained injuries in the attack,” he said.
Following the incident, the Revenue District Officer inspected the site. “We asked them to give a complaint and now a case has been registered at Vengal police station,” said a revenue official.
Meanwhile, NGOs want the district administration to inspect all brick kilns in the district. “There will be many more workers who are trapped there,” said Mr. Krishnan.
“An FIR has been filed by Vengal police for wrongful restraint, criminal intimidation, voluntarily hurting with weapons and use of obscene language and threatening the workers,” Mr. Krishnan added.
Migrant labourer dies
A 42-year-old migrant worker from Odisha was found dead on the Chennai-Kolkatta Highway near Kavarapettai on Monday evening.
The police identified him as Ram Biswas from Lachipeta in Odisha. Investigations are on to ascertain the cause of death.
