Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Tuesday once again pointed to the alleged plight of migrant labourers from West Bengal, claiming that a group after being released from detention in Chattisgarh were forcibly put into buses and sent back to their home state.
Also, party’s Rajya Sabha MP and West Bengal Migrant Labour Board chairman Samirul Islam said that some members of the Matua community have been detained in Pune, Maharashtra.
Their reaction came a day before Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to lead a rally in Kolkata in protest against the alleged detention and harassment of migrant labourers from Bengal in other states.
“The nine workers who have been kidnapped by Chhattisgarh police… have now been let free. Now they have been forcibly pushed into buses, to be forced to come back to Bengal. This is completely illegal,” said Moitra, the Lok Sabha MP from Krishnanagar, in a video message posted on X.
“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 into buses to put them into Bengal. They are not criminals, they have every right to be in whichever state they want to be. You have no right to throw them out of the territory of Chhattisgarh. I hope you realize this. If you don’t, I am going to take you to court,” she added.
On Monday, she had pointed to the detention of nine migrant workers from Nadia district, which is part of her constituency, in Chhattisgarh.
Islam wrote on X, “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.”
“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,” he said.
“We have also learned that the Pune police are reportedly refusing to recognize identity cards issued by the All India Matua Mahasangha (AIMM), besides EPIC and Aadhar cards…” he added.
These incidents come in the wake of similar detentions of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in Odisha, Gujarat, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh.
Last month, seven migrant workers detained in Mumbai were pushed into Bangladesh, who were later brought back.