TMC slams BJP govt as 200 Bengali migrants ‘tagged B'deshis', ‘detained' in Odisha
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Bengal Police has already sent verification reports of multiple detainees to their Odisha counterparts.
"This is heading into dangerous territory," Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said on Wednesday. "Bengalis will speak Bengali. Is that a crime? And why is this happening only in BJP-governed states," Ghosh asked. Odisha cops said as many as 448 suspected Bangladeshis and Rohingya were identified and shifted to centres in Jharsuguda and Jagatsinghpur.
TMC MP Mahua Moitra slammed Odisha govt, demanding the immediate release of 23 workers from Nadia's Mirzapur, allegedly detained at Jharsuguda since Monday night. "All of these 23 workers have valid documentation, Aadhaar cards, EPICs, everything they need to work there. India is a union of states, and every single citizen has the right to life, the right to livelihood, and the right to work anywhere within the territory of India.
Please do not think that there is no one to fight for these workers. There is absolutely no reason to detain them," stated Moitra. "Release them or we will file 23 habeas corpus petitions in every court in this land," she added.
Moitra said that such incidents never took place during the 24-year period when the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD govt was in office in Odisha, but ever since BJP came to office, such incidents had become a daily occurrence.
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"I urge Odisha govt to think... It is easy for you to prey, to harass, to intimidate poor workers who go to earn a livelihood. Have you ever thought that 50% of Odisha's tourism revenue comes from Bengalis? If you harass and detain our workers, Bengali tourists will stop going to Odisha.
They are the ones who stay at your hotels, who eat at your restaurants, who visit your places of pilgrimage. What will happen?" she said.
According to TMC netas, over 200 migrant workers from Nadia, Murshidabad, Malda, Birbhum, East Burdwan and South 24 Parganas have been picked up in recent weeks by Odisha cops and kept at interrogation centres in Jharsuguda. TMC Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam alleged that these detentions were part of a "deliberate pattern of harassment" based on the workers' language and origin.
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