Over 600 poor people from Chhattisgarh's Janjgir-Champa district alone have been kept as bonded labourers in others states, a minister told the state assembly Tuesday.

'Hundreds of people from Chhattisgarh have been kept as bonded labourers in various states and the government is doing its best to free them and bring them back to their home state,' Labour and Agriculture Minister Chandrasekhar Sahu informed the assembly in reply to a question from Congress member Mahant Ramsundar Das.

The minister said that 662 persons belonging to Janjgir-Champa district alone have now been kept as bonded labourers, mainly in Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh.