Forty-years-old Dasu Oraon, a tribal hailing from Baiga Toli of Kottam village, Garu block in Latehar district, Jharkhand, has got his Diwali gift well in advance.

The man’s employer Vincent Augustine based at Idukki district, Kerala, transferred Oraon’s pending wage worth Rs 114000 digitally. The poor tribal man got relief after 10-months of uncertainty and harassment.

“Our district labour superintendent Babban Singh took all the pains to make sure that this man got his pending wage worth Rs 1.14 lakh by his Kerala-based employer,” DC Latehar Abu Imran told TT Online today.

Babban Singh on being contacted, informed, “Oraon came to me with a written complaint in September. He maintained that his former employer Vincent Augustine based in Kerala was not clearing his dues worth Rs 1.14 lakh.”

In the complaint, Oraon further wrote that his employer had issued a South India Bank cheque worth the same amount. He had deposited it at the State Bank of India, Garu branch. However, the cheque bounced back, as there was no balance in his employer’s account.

According to Singh, Oraon had worked for Augustine for two years and had quit his job in December 2019 to return home.

Labour superintendent revealed, “He has no bank account of his own. He had given his neighbour Ram Pervesh Singh’s bank account to Augustine, where the cheque bounced.”

Following which Oraon made frequent calls to Augustine, but his employer never took his calls.

Singh maintained that the bounced cheque proved the tribal man’s contention before the Labour Officer of Idukki in Kerala, who then helped the Jharkhand official connect with the district magistrate Idukki, who intervened to help the poor man.

“I knew it would be difficult for Augustine to deny or disown Oraon because of the bounced cheque, so I persuaded my counterpart in Idukki to bail out this tribal. I believe Augustine understood that any further delay in payment would land him into legal trouble as it had all the ingredients of an interstate non-payment of wages issue,” said Singh.

He added, “This realization made Augustine digitally transfer the pending payment in Oraon’s neighbour’s account.”