E-Paper
Migrant labourer duped by agent dies in Chennai
A 35-year-old migrant worker, Samar Khan, died in Chennai from starvation-related issues after collapsing with others. They sought work but were cheated.
A 35-year-old labourer, one of the five migrant workers who collapsed due to starvation in Chennai, has died at a government hospital in the city, officials aware of the matter said on Tuesday.
The victim was identified as Samar Khan, who originally belonged to West Bengal. He was declared dead on Monday night, they added.
“The cause of his death is uremic encephalopathy, acute kidney injury stage-3, ventilator associated pneumonia and sepsis,” said Dr Therani Rajan of Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.
“One more patient, Satya Pandit, is under treatment. He is stable and undergoing dialysis.” Three other patients were discharged last week.
On September 16, five migrant workers fainted at the MGR Chennai Central station due to starvation. They were among a group of 12 agricultural labourers who came in search of work in Chennai’s neighbouring district Thiruvallur.
“The labourers were taken to Ponneri by an agent, who cheated them and did not give them any accommodation and work,” said an official of the Greater Chennai Corporation.
“With the money that was left with them, all 12 of them bought train tickets to return home. They did not eat for at least five days and survived only on water. However, they suffered from diarrhoea and fainted. The railway police rescued them and informed us,” the official added.
The civic officials said that five of them were admitted to hospital and the remaining seven were sent to a men’s shelter near the hospital. “We gave them food and medical care,” the official said.
“A retired bureaucrat who belonged to the West Bengal cadre has offered financial assistance to them. We have sent back three of them by flight and five of them by train to Kolkata.”
The labourers did not have their Aadhaar cards and other IDs. “They also spoke only in Bengali and the Hindi-speaking doctors could not gather much from them because of the language barrier,” the official said.
Panchayat officials from West Bengal have written to the Chennai corporation requesting them to send the labourers back. Khan’s body will be sent back to Kolkata, officials said.
