Kolkata, Aug 2 (PTI) A team of TMC leaders left for Maharashtra on Saturday evening after it was alleged that over 100 migrant workers from West Bengal were held in the western state on suspicion that they were Bangladeshis.
TMC’s Bishnupur MLA Dilip Mondal met the family of Babai Sardar, who is a part of the group.
Sardar is a resident of Julpia in his constituency in the South 24 Parganas district.
Mondal alleged that Sardar, working as a construction labourer in Mumbai for three years, was detained along with 105 other Bengali-speaking people a few days back.
“On the direction of our MP Abhishek Banerjee, we are sending four leaders from the South 24 Parganas district to Maharashtra to rescue them. If the team faces any problems, Banerjee has said that he will himself travel to Maharashtra to secure their release,” he said, addressing a press conference.
Mondal said TMC’s panchayat samiti members Palas Karmakar, Anup Kumar Das, Sachi Das and Rajib Gazi were in the team that was travelling to Mumbai.
“The officer-in-charge of the Bishnupur police station will also go tomorrow to talk to his counterparts in Mumbai with all necessary documents to secure their release,” he said.
PTI could not reach the Mumbai Police regarding the allegations.
Sardar’s parents, who were also present at the press conference, said they had last spoken to him on July 25 over the phone.
“He is carrying all documents, including his voter identity card. His grandfather was born in India in 1936. He has proof of his parents being born in India, and we have been living at Julpia for years,” his father, Debu, said.
“I am afraid that my son will be forcibly deported to Bangladesh just because he speaks Bengali. Otherwise, why were the documents submitted by him during detention ignored by the Mumbai Police? We don’t want our son to work in Mumbai or outside Bengal anymore,” he added.
The TMC has been raising its voice over the last one month, alleging that Bengali-speaking people, especially poor Muslim migrant workers, are being harassed in BJP-ruled states and being branded illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has led a mega rally in Kolkata over the issue last month, and also started ‘Bhasa Andolan’, sharpening her attack on the BJP.
The BJP, on the other hand, has dismissed the allegations, claiming that the TMC did not think about the welfare of migrant workers over the last 14 years, and was now raising the issue with an eye on next year’s assembly elections in the state. PTI SUS SOM
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