SALEPUR: Three labourers who were tortured physically and mentally in South Africa, returned to their native Gokan village under Mahanga block on Tuesday.Labourers Bijay Kumar Malla (35), Basant Kumar Mahanty (32) and Bramhananda Mahanty (25) had gone to South Africa along with some other labourers of Jajpur district after being promised work with fat salaries by an agent in May. They were employed in a company, Jaguar Overseas Cement Factory, at Bimbo.However, they were tortured by the company authorities. Last month, Nanda Malik, a labourer from Dharpur village in Jajpur district, had died of illness and lack of treatment in South Africa. However, Bijay Malla managed to contact his family members following which, his father submitted petitions through the sarpanch of Gokan gram panchayat to the Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary, the Labour Minister and the District Collector requesting their intervention.The State Government with the help of the Centre finally managed to bring back 23 labourers to Orissa.“Of the 23 labourers, while three belong to Mahanga block in Cuttack district, Narayan Swain belongs to Siju village in Jagatsinghpur district and the rest 19 are from Jajpur district,” informed Pradeep Mahapatra, District Labour Officer of Cuttack.
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