Around 300 former linkmen of the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) sent a petition to the district police chief of Malda on Friday, seeking permission to meet chief minister Mamata Banerjee during her proposed visit to Malda on January 31.

“We want to request the chief minister to take necessary steps so that we are provided with state government jobs. Many of us are somehow running the families by doing odd jobs,” said Sanatan Sarkar, a former KLO linkman.

Ever since Mamata assumed the chief minister’s office, she has provided jobs of special home guards to over 500 such former militants and linkmen of the outfit.

“Assurances have come from various ends of the state government that we will be provided with jobs as a part of the rehabilitation process. It has been years since we have returned to mainstream but so far, nothing has come in our hands,” said another former linkman.

Sources in the Malda district administration said on January 21, Mamata is likely to attend a public distribution programme at Gazole block of the district.

The former linkmen who have put their signatures in the petition are from four blocks of the district, namely Gazole, Habibpur, Bamangola and Old Malda, said sources.