Guntur/Nalgonda, June 1 (Agencies): The district collectors of Guntur and Nalgonda in a joint operation on Sunday rescued 22 child laborers hailing from Nagaland when they were allegedly being used for menial jobs. The children, aged between six and 14 years were brought from Samziuram village in Peren district in Nagaland to an orphans’ home in Miryalaguda in Nalgonda district run by EARE and Harvest India, promising them food and quality education.
Later, five of them were shifted to Tenali in Guntur. The children were allegedly ill-treated, illegally confined and engaged in work by the organizers. The Nalgonda Collector took into custody 17 boys and girls from Miryalaguda to provide them a temporary shelter before they are sent back to Nagaland.
On information from the Nalgonda Collector, the Guntur District In-charge Collector Kanti Lal Dande traced a boy and four girls in Tenali town on Sunday evening and brought them to Guntur for medical examination. These five children would be shifted to Nalgonda so that they could be sent to Nagaland as a group of 22. In Nalgonda, the joint raid was conducted by the police with allied departments, based on instructions from the top brass.
Acting on a tip-off, the Chief Secretary of the Nagaland government sent a written communiqué to his counterpart in Andhra Pradesh seeking cooperation in rescuing the children from his State. The police detained two staff members of the home and shifted some of the malnourished children to hospitals where they were administered saline. All the rescued children were moved to Bala Sadhan and provided food. Despite the language barrier, the hapless children narrated their plight at the orphanage. A case of cheating was registered against the organizers of the home.
