Odisha administration says 3 migrant workers did not walk 1100 km to get home from Bangalore

As soon as media reports of three migrant workers allegedly harassed by their employer in Karnataka’s capital city of Bengaluru and forced to walk on foot to reach their homes in Odisha’s Kalahandi district without pay began to circulate, the district administrative officers and local police came to their villages to question them in connection with this.

The Kalahandi district administration took the matter seriously and reached out to the village. The three workers were rumored to have walked 1,100 km from Bangalore to Kalahandi. However, it was later revealed that they had walked a total of 160 km from Visakhapatnam to Pottangi village in the Koraput district of Odisha. The trio had traveled from Bangalore to Visakhapatnam without a train ticket. Since they had no money, they were forced to walk from Visakhapatnam to Pottangi and then reached the Nabarangpur area by truck. Later, they reached Semela village in Kalahandi district by tractor.

They have appealed to the district administration to help them get two months’ salary from their employer.

Migrant worker Bhikari Majhi said: “We faced many problems in Bangalore. The contractor did not give salaries and threatened to kill them. Tactfully, we returned from there. Although we had no money, we traveled by train without a ticket to Visakhapatnam. Then we walked and with the help of a truck, a tractor, we got to the house”.

“Two months ago, 10 people went to Bangalore. The contractor did not pay us and tortured us. We decided to go back home and walk,” said another migrant, Katar Majhi.

Jaypatna police said they registered a case against the broker and started an investigation into the matter.

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