Lathore: On the one hand, people in Bolangir district have been facing a lot of difficulties in finding jobs during these pandemic times, on the other hand, illegal labour trafficking is rampant in various parts of the district, a report said.
Taking advantage of absence of job opportunities in the region, middleman have become active in various areas and are luring people with promises of getting employment outside the state.
Every day scores of people are being taken to neighboring states like Andhra Pradesh and Telangana via trains. It was alleged that the district administration and the local Labour department have turned a blind eye to the rampant labour trafficking.
Police too are not taking action against the middlemen. Lathore has become a hub of labour trafficking. From Harishankar Road railway station, middlemen are sending local people to other states by trains every day.
Apart from trains, labourers are also being transported by four-wheelers to other states, it was alleged.
After Durga Puja, middleman had camped in various parts of the Patna sub-division to assemble labourers for various brick kilns, fish processing factories and hotels in Andhara Pradesh, Tamil nadu, Kerala, and Chennai.
It is said that the state government has been implementing rural job schemes like MGNREGS to provide job opportunities in the villages, but the efforts seems to have flopped in the areas where labour trafficking is a lucrative business.
In other areas, police have filed cases against some middlemen after being caught while trafficking people, but Lathore police have lowered their guard on the labour touts.
So far, only two cases relating to labour trafficking have been lodged in Lathore area. When asked but the unauthorised labour trafficking, Labour Inspector Niranjan Bhuyan failed to give any satisfactory reply.
“We have kept a watch on middleman in Lathore. Raids will be carried out and actions will be taken against the people found guilty,” he added.
Various outfits have demanded immediate steps by the administration to check labour migration and provide job opportunities in their locality.
PNN
