The nine migrant labourers detained by the Chhattisgarh Police have been set free but “shoved into buses and sent to West Bengal”, claimed Trinamool Congress (TMC) Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra Tuesday. Meanwhile, TMC Rajya Sabha MP and West Bengal Migrant Workers Welfare Board chairman Samirul Islam said Matua community members have been detained in Pune.
The leaders’ statements came a day ahead of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s rally in Kolkata in protest against the detention and harassment of migrant labourers from Bengal in other states.
“The nine workers who have been detained by Chhattisgarh police have now been set free. Now they have been forced into service, to be sent back to Bengal. This is completely illegal,” said Moitra in a video message shared through her X handle.
“I urge the Chhattisgarh DGP. Are you aware of what your police are doing? They put them in illegal detention. We have no idea where they are. Now you have released them, and you are shoving them into buses to put them into Bengal. They are not criminals; they have every right to be in any state they choose. You have no right to throw them out of the territory of Chhattisgarh. I hope you realise this. If you don’t, I am going to take you to court,” added Moitra.
On Monday evening, Moitra highlighted the plight of the nine migrant workers from her Krishnanagar constituency allegedly detained in Chhattisgarh.
On Tuesday, Samirul Islam highlighted that members of the Matua community have been detained in Pune, Maharashtra.
“Now members of our beloved Matua community have been facing harassment by the anti-Bengali BJP government in Maharashtra. Hatred in politics spares no one.BJP leaders are trying to malign Bengali-speaking migrant workers by branding them as Rohingyas. Recently, our office at the West Bengal Migrant Workers’ Welfare Board received information about police harassment of at least six members of the Matua community from North 24 Parganas, currently residing in Pune, Maharashtra.” Islam said on X.
“We have already reached out to the affected family, who confirmed that the police in BJP-ruled Maharashtra have detained Arush Adhikary and at least five others, including minors, on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals. Shockingly, BJP MP and Union Minister of State Santanu Thakur himself belongs to the Matua community.”
‘We have also learned that the Pune police are reportedly refusing to recognise identity cards issued by the All India Matua Mahasangha (AIMM), besides EPIC and Aadhar cards…” Islam wrote.
The incident comes close on the heels of similar detentions of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi, and Madhya Pradesh
Last month, seven migrant workers detained in Mumbai were forcibly pushed into Bangladesh, but they were later repatriated.