IMPHAL, August 14: Four minors were found among 24 non-local labourers dropped early this morning by a Assam passenger bus bearing registration number AS 01 9777 at Thangmeiband College gate.
According to the JCILPS, students’ wing, following a tip-off, members and volunteers rushed to the spot and found the 24 trying to board auto-rickshaws.
The labourers were brought to the All Manipur Students’ Union office and on checking their credentials, the volunteers found four of them to be minors and many of them with invalid and fake ID-cards, student wing convenor Angamba said.
On further query they said they were recruited by Kolkata based Capital Company for manual work at the ongoing work site at Power Grid, Yulembam, Angamba said.
According to the convenor, the labourers identified themselves as coming from Malda town in West Bengal.
Meanwhile, a police team of the Imphal West led by OC Shanti Kumar Singh rushed to the AMSU campus and took away the labourers for transportation to Yurembam Power Grid.
He told the student volunteers that the labourers were there for developmental work of the State and should not be harassed in the name of the Inner Line Permit System.
The Yurembam Power Grid authority has also acknowledged the labourers as workforce meant for installation of power towers.
Meanwhile, the JCILPS, student wing has appealed to the State government to implement the ILPS in the State to safeguard the indigenous peoples.
Meanwhile, members of the Child Line also arrived to rescue the four juveniles but couldn’t do so, as the OC Imphal West had already whisked the labourers away.