According to sources at the West Bengal secretariat Nabanna, Majhi has assured her such incidents “would not be repeated”.

The state government is stated to be keen on bringing these migrants back, with sources quoting the CM as “promising them employment” in the state.

The latest phone call between the chief ministers of West Bengal Bengal and Odisha comes at a time when a widely circulated video purportedly shows a Bengali-speaking vendor being assaulted in Odisha. In the video, the vendor is assaulted when he fails to produce his Aadhaar card.

According to the sources, several Bengali migrant workers living in Odisha have been “harassed” on suspicion of being Bangladeshi immigrants. Last week, at least 20 such workers from Murshidabad district who were allegedly beaten up in Odisha were rescued and brought back to the state.

Migrant workers’ association Parijayee Shramik Aikya Mancha has flagged their concerns to the state’s migrant workers welfare board. “It’s unfortunate that somebody who talks in Bengali is being branded a Bangladeshi. I have raised this matter earlier in Parliament too. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has herself intervened in this matter,” Samirul Islam, the board chairman and a Rajya Sabha MP from Bqanerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC), told The Indian Express, adding that it was a person’s “constitutional right” to take up employment in any part of the country.

The West Bengal government’s helpline number for migrant workers is 1800-103-009.

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