203 labourers freed from two Aligarh brick kilns

ALIGARH: A joint team of the labour department, district administration and local police freed 203 bonded labourers, comprising 42 families, from two brick kilns in Akrabad area on Thursday, said officials.

The freed labourers have alleged that the brick kiln owners were making them work without paying wages. The district administration is making arrangements to send the freed labourers to their home town Gaya in Bihar.

Gaurav, manager of a Delhi NGO had lodged a complaint with the human resource development (HRD) ministry that brick kiln owners in Akrabad area of Aligarh were holding labourers hostage and making them work without paying wages.

The HRD ministry had issued directions to Aligarh DM for necessary action.

The DM in turn ordered ADM (administration) RN Dharma to take necessary steps in this regard and the latter constituted a team comprising SDM (Kol), labour department and NGO manager Gaurav.

The team accompanied with police, raided SRS Brick Kiln in Alampur. Here the labourers told the team that the brick kiln owner held 26 families, comprising 156 members, hostage, using them as bonded labourers. The team freed all of them.

Next the team raided Prince Brick Kiln in Pilakhna where the owner had an argument with them . Here too the labourers said the brick kiln owner was taking work from 16 families (47 members )without paying any wages.

Naib Tehsildar Raj Kumar told HT, “Our teams got labourers freed from both brick kilns and brought all of them to the labour office.”

Aligarh DM Rishikesh Bahskar Yashod told HT, “A joint team of police, administration and labour department raided two brick kilns on the directive of the HRD ministry. Now after investigation, necessary action will be taken against brick kiln owners.”

The freed labourers said that the brick kiln owners were abusing a them apart from holding them hostage. They were not paying any wages. To note, nearly 350 labour contractors are supplying manpower to brick kilns in the district but not one of them is registered with the labour department. PRADEEP SAXENA