E-Paper
Odisha man may have lost his palm, foot after falling on train tracks
Sanka Murmu alleged a labour contractor’s middlemen in Uttar Pradesh chopped off his palm and foot last month when he asked for wages
A tribal man from Odisha’s Gajapati, who has alleged a labour contractor’s middlemen in Uttar Pradesh chopped off his palm and foot last month when he asked for wages, may actually have fallen on train tracks after getting drunk, police and labour department officials have said, citing initial probe.
Sanka Murmu, 45, claimed the middlemen promised him a job at a cement factory and ₹20,000 monthly wages in Delhi but took him to Uttar Pradesh. He was admitted to a hospital in Berhampur on Tuesday days after his return home on September 30.
State labour commissioner N Thirumala Naik said Murmu left for New Delhi on September 13 but was taken to Uttar Pradesh and promised more remuneration.
“In Uttar Pradesh, they [middlemen] told him he will be engaged in millet harvest work. But the work could not begin for four days due to rain. ...he started working in the fields...Murmu was drinking with his co-workers on a Sunday evening when he walked to a nearby railway line. A few hours later, he was found injured with his hand and feet bleeding,” said Naik.
Dilip Nayak, a police officer, said Murmu’s co-workers admitted him to a local hospital and informed his wife. “...they brought him back...” He said their team would go to Uttar Pradesh to investigate the matter.
In December 2013, a labour contractor and his men chopped palms of a tribal and a Dalit worker in Kalahandi for refusing to go to Andhra Pradesh. The contractor and seven others were sentenced to life in prison in December 2016. One of the two workers died three months earlier.
