Tamil Nadu - Salem   

Rice, dal distributed to rescued bonded labourers

Special Correspondent

With no help from district officials, they were starving for a week With no help from officials, they were starving for a week

SALEM: Piqued by the inordinate delay of the Salem district administration in providing essential commodities to the recently rescued bonded labourers from Karnataka, a group of social workers, members of self-help groups (SHG) and women activists distributed rice, dal and oil to them at Taramangalam on Thursday.

The team went to Arurpatti village near Taramangalam and distributed the goods to 32 rescued bonded labourers who had been starving for a week now.

Appeals go in vain

Ms. Shanthi, the advisor for the Alternative for India Development (AID) at Omalur and who had been instrumental in releasing the bonded labourers from a stone quarry near Bangalore, told The Hindu here that despite their pleas and applications, officials of the District Supply Office refused to extend any help to these rescued labourers.

Hence the social workers teamed up with SHG members and distributed the essential commodities, she said.

About 40 bonded labourers from Taramangalam, including women and children, were rescued last week from stone quarries near Bangalore in Karnataka.

They also met the officials who assured them the needful.

They went to their native villages in and around Taramangalam where they were told that compensation would be distributed. But no district official turned up.

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