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Suspend operations at this quarry pending a granular, transparent probe
Dear Editor,
I write with an urgency bordering on horror regarding the allegations emerging from the EKAA HRIM quarry in Batavia, Region 7. The reported death of Indian national and Guyana’s brother, Sekhar Chhetri, allegedly due to starvation and overwork (but officially deemed a victim of a heart attack) while under the employ of a conglomerate owned by the head of Texila University, Saju Bhaskar, demands more than a passing investigation—it demands a national reckoning.
The inhumane treatment of these 38 Indian Nationals at the EKAA HRIM Earth Resources quarry in Batavia, Region 7, on Amerindian Toshao land was exposed and publicly reported by the Leader of the Opposition, Honorable Azruddin Mohamed, and Member of Parliament, Nandranie Singh, Shadow Minister of Labour and Manpower Planning. The exploitation and abuses, including the withholding of passports, unpaid wages, starvation, (some were vegetarians), unsafe/ unsanitary living conditions, lack of medical facilities, were originally brought to the attention. The leader of the Opposition, on May 15, 2026, who then urged the Guyana Government to officially intervene.
Guyana remembers the fanfare of 2023 and 2025. President Dr. Irfaan Ali personally blessed this US$10M venture, standing with Saju Bhaskar, the Indian National who founded Texila University. The President expressed elation that because the quarry sits on Toshao land, it would bring prosperity. We were promised that a “significant portion” of Guyanese, in Batavia, would be gainfully employed, trained on hydraulic machines, and lifted out of subsistence living.
Editor, I ask bluntly: Did this happen? Go-Invest claims local employment is happening, but the government has not released the hard percentage of the 600 promised jobs that actually went to the citizens of Batavia and Region 7. If the jobs were there for us, why the necessity to import scores of labourers from India?
Minister of Labor and Manpower Planning, Honorable Keoma Griffith- you are on the clock as this is your wheelhouse.
Editor, the situation is grimmer than employment statistics. We are now told that 38 Indian nationals were effectively held hostage by the confiscation of their passports. We are told of a worker, Sekhar Chhetri, who collapsed, with a preliminary claim of a “heart attack.” But the Opposition Shadow Minister of Labour, MP Nandranie Singh is citing reports of “delayed salaries,” “inadequate food,” “lack of medical access,” and men allegedly worked to death. In 2025, in our Guyana, are we to believe that a young man simply drops dead from a heart attack, or was he broken by starvation and slavelike labour?
The Guyanese public will, now, not accept the “heart attack” explanation on a possibly trumped up, death certificate. Will brother Sekhar Chhetri’s body be exhumed for an independent autopsy to establish causation?
Editor, I am further disgusted and alarmed by the thunderous silence of the Indian Consulate, in Guyana. Are they keeping tabs on their citizens, or is their culpability inclusive in this mess? The Indian Embassy in Guyana owes the public a published statement of fact regarding the whereabouts and treatment of these 38 workers and the necessary remediation- Guyanese do not want to hear from Tagman Media, the cliched mouthpiece of EKAA HRIM- but from the Indian High Commissioner to Guyana, Dr. Amit Telang, as Dr. Amit Telang is the plenipotentiary for the Government of India.
Editor, Guyana must not allow another “Jim Jones” scenario to manifest here—where a foreign authority isolates Guyanese and foreign workers in the interior, operating outside the reach of the law. Guyana has endured the whip and chain of bonded bondage in our past. We will NOT accept modern slavery in OUR Motherland, Guyana.
I urge President Ali and the Ministry of Labour to suspend operations at this quarry pending a granular, transparent probe. If these allegations of starvation and passport confiscation are true, the head of Texila University, Saju Bhaskar, must be banned from operating on Guyanese soil, and concurrently face Guyana’s Judicial System if evidence dictates such.
Yours in the fight for justice,
Jonathan Subrian
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