Adhir writes to Shah on plight of WB workers in Odisha

Kolkata: West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Sunday wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, requesting him to intervene in the alleged harassment of labourers from the State in neighbouring Odisha.Chowdhury also forwarded copies of the letter to both the chief ministers of West Bengal and Odisha.

“In Odisha, a large number of migrant workers (from West Bengal) have been the victims of social discrimination, subjected to various physical violence without any provocation, much to the dismay of the people of West Bengal. They are all poor and vulnerable. They need protection from violence,” Chowdhury wrote in his letter. There were reports that migrant labourers from West Bengal were being beaten up and tortured by locals suspecting them to be Bangladeshis.

“You are most humbly requested to take note of the grim situation facing the migrants in Odisha and to ensure an environment of peace and security,” the Congress leader said in the letter to Shah. Chowdhury mentioned that the recent political turmoil in neighbouring Bangladesh, followed by the social tension, has “ominously impacted, if not ruptured, the social fabrics in some areas of the country”.

Notably, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier called up her Odisha counterpart Mohan Charan Majhi and requested him to look into alleged incidents of assault on labourers from the State there.