50 labour agents arrested from three Odisha districts

At least 50 labour agents have been arrested for allegedly trafficking workers from Odisha to other states, a top police officer said on Friday.

The apprehensions were made during a special drive launched in Rayagada, Nabarangpur and Kalahandi districts on Thursday night, Director General of Police (DGP) B K Sharma said.

Of the 50 arrests, 15 were made in Rayagada district, 21 in Nabarangpur and 14 in Kalahandi, he said.

The nabbed persons are being interrogated to ascertain the forward and backward linkages of the racket, Sharma said.

With the fresh arrests, the total number of labour agents nabbed from different parts of the state over the past one week has risen to 91, officials said.

At least 41 of them were apprehended from Balangir and Nuapada districts during a drive last week, they said.

The agents were nabbed when they were finalising deals with labourers, the officials said, adding the workers are mostly trafficked to Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The labourers are lured with some advance money and sent off to far-off places outside the state, where most of them are tortured and made to work in inhuman conditions, they added.

Another senior police officer said the drive against labour agents will intensify.