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Higher wages offer lands them in trouble

KORAPUT: Debaki Pangi, the only daughter of Chitama Pangi of Barangapalli village in Attanda panchayat of Nandapur block in Koraput district was reportedly assaulted by the site supervisor at Jangaon village in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. Bijaysen Pangi, a youth who returned home from the village after getting sick, informed the family members of the ‘assault’ and the entire village was shocked assuming danger to their wards who are a part of the group .

Debaki had left the village four months ago along with Lachama Badnayak, Maliki Pangi, Dhanmati Khora and Purnima Badnaik accompanying some youths, all in their twenties from the village to work somewhere in Andhra Pradesh after getting an offer of higher wages from a contractor, Madhusudan Badnaik, former samiti member and one of the parents whose wards were out said on Wednesday.

There was no work even under NREGA over the last six months and for being the displaced families of Machkund project had very little land which they could say their own. The families need to work hard without any technical skills to meet their ends and the youth had taken the step to leave their village without informing their parents, so that they could support their parents in generating additional funds for the families, Mangala Khora, an old person from the village added.

However the dreams of getting higher wages and a comfortable stay was proved wrong when the group had reached their first destination, Jangaon in Andhra Pradesh to work on the railway tracks. They were paid Rs.100 per person per week as an advance for their food, Bijaysen Pangi said.

After being assaulted the entire group was shifted to Akhibidi railway station and then to Tuni and now to Gudiwada railway station, he added.

The labourers were not being paid the promised amount by the contractor and the labourers had little money to support their needs. Even when the contractor was approached to pay the dues of Bijay so that he could go back to his village for his sickness he was also not given his dues, Mr. Madhusudan alleged.

However, looking at the urgency of the situation, girls in the group who had saved some money with them contributed for his return, Bijay said.

While the villagers were planning to ask for help from the district administration, the telephone call received on Tuesday had created more shock in the entire village. In his telephonic conversation, Nanda Khora, a member of the group informed that he was seriously injured and wanted to be rescued. His voice was at its lowest but sufficient to create the highest worries among the villagers. The parents of the youth accompanying other sympathetic villagers approached the district administration to take the necessary steps to bring back the youth and provide work in the region.

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