State shares report on labourers’ death

SHILLONG, APR 10: Meghalaya government has shared with the Assam government the feedback of preliminary report of the death of fourteen Assam based labourers who died after they consumed the ‘chutney’ made from a poisonous wild fruit on April 6 in a remote camp in East Jaintia hills district.

The fourteen labourers were working in a road construction site at Umphung village which is about 15 km away from Saipung in East Jaintia hills district.

Meghalaya government is however waiting for the full report on the tragic death of the fourteen labourers who belong to Dhubri in Assam but were working in East Jaintia hills. The inquiry is headed by Inspector General of Police A Sunn.

Assam has also instituted an administrative inquiry headed by the additional chief secretary. The Assam government has asked the assistance of the Meghalaya government for conducting the inquiry.

Meghalaya home minister Roshan Warjri told reporters on Friday, “The government is seriously concern over the tragic incident that resulted in the death of 14 labourers which is quite unfortunate.” She also said the compensation aspect can only be decided after the report of the inquiry is submitted to ther government.

According to Meghalaya additional chief secretary KS Kropha normally the inquiry is completed with three months under the CRPC.

Stating that Meghalaya chief secretary PBO Warjri has sent a letter to his Assam counterpart on Friday, Kropha said the letter shares the feedback of the preliminary report of the death of the fourteen labourers after they consumed the chutney made from the wild and poisonous fruit known as Khuaitur in the local dialect.

The preliminary report, stated that all the fourteen labourers were found lying dead in their beds with blood and froth oozing out from their mouth, nose and ears. The wild fruit “khuaitur” were found in their kitchen along with a portion of the same fruit which was crushed and mixed with onion and chilly.

The preliminary report said the symptoms noticed on the bodies of the deceased were similar to that of ‘food poisoning’ and police found no external injury marks on their bodies.

Kropha informed the left-over “chutney” along with available wild fruit have been collected and sent for FSL examination.