Police caned migrant workers and apparently fired in the air to disperse them from the Egra-Bajkul state highway in East Midnapore’s Patashpur where they had come to demand work under the 100 days’ job scheme.

Migrant workers hurled stones at the police. No person was injured but the role of the police drew flak from both the Trinamul and BJP.
Trinamul’s Patashpur block president Mrinal Das said: “The police should have handled the situation with compassion.” BJP’s Contai president Anup Chakraborty accused the state government of failing to give returnee migrant workers food and jobs. “Now, they (the government) is using force on migrant workers, even to the extent of opening fire,” he said.

East Midnapore superintendent of police Indira Mukherjee did not admit that the police had fired in the air. “I have to check,” she said.
Patashpur residents alleged things took an ugly turn when the police led by Egra SDPO Akhtar Ali used force on the migrant workers — back from various cities during the Covid-induced lockdown — who had blocked the state highway over not getting jobs and ration coupons.

Migrant worker Seikh Safiul said the state government promised job cards and food coupons for them but panchayat authorities did nothing for them. “We were staging a peaceful protest. The police caned us and opened fire,” he said.

On April 18, panchayat and rural development minister Subrata Mukherjee had said migrant workers would get work under the 100 days’ job scheme if they were Bengal residents. At least 10,000 migrants had come home under Patashpur-II block, an official said.

Patashpur-II BDO Madhumala Nandy pointed out that under MGNREGA, only one member of a family could have a job card, but most migrant workers’ families had one. “When migrant workers demand new job cards, we cannot issue them under norms.”