Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday criticised a drive initiated by the Delhi police to verify the address and other details of migrant workers from Bengal in Delhi.

Udayan Guha, the north Bengal development minister, who was present at the state-level administrative review meeting in Nabanna on Thursday, informed her that a team from Delhi police was in Dinhata of Cooch Behar district to visit the homes of migrant workers and verify their details.

"People are feeling harassed because of this exercise. Also, they (the Delhi police team) have not taken the local (Dinhata) police with them and are doing this on their own,” said Guha.

An irked Mamata responded: “How can the Delhi police do so without informing us? This is not done… they are not allowed to do so. If the verification of any resident of our state has to be done, it will be carried out by the state police.”

The Telegraph on Thursday reported on the exercise initiated by the Delhi police.

The police, while trying to identify Bangladeshi infiltrators staying in Delhi with forged Indian documents, were collecting details of Bengal's migrant workers, especially from the minority community, and visiting their native places in districts like Cooch Behar to confirm that they were Indian citizens.

Mamata said that if the police from any other state come to Bengal in connection with any crime, they take the state's permission.

“But in this case, they didn’t inform us… this is unacceptable. In any case, the local police should be with them. I will ask officials in all the districts to be alert and not allow such overtures,” she said.

Cooch Behar's Arvind Kumar Meena, the district magistrate, and Dyutiman Bhattacharya, the superintendent of police, also came in her line of fire.

“Why are you sitting silent? Why the SP has not informed the director-general of police of the state about it?” asked Mamata, while instructing DGP Rajeev Kumar and chief secretary Manoj Pant to look into the issue.

“What is the SP doing there? He should know the law. In future, if you come across such information, pass it to the DM and the SP and then directly inform me,” said Mamata, addressing Guha, who is also the Trinamool MLA of Dinhata.

Later in the day, it was learnt that the team of Delhi police had left Dinhata. Alam Sheikh of Dinhata, who works as a scrap merchant in Delhi but was visiting home, said the team had left.

On Tuesday, Sheikh's kin in Delhi had to face harassment as they called at the Vasant Kunj police station when the police couldn’t contact Sheikh over the phone. He had been to Nepal on a day trip for the treatment of his eyes. Only after he returned and spoke to his family and the police over the phone, were they allowed to leave the police station.

A senior police officer in the district confirmed that the Delhi team left Dinhata. “It seems the chief minister’s loud message has worked,” he said.

The Delhi police exercise drew flak criticism from the All India Forward Bloc.

Abdur Rauf, a senior Forward Bloc leader, said that soon they would stage protests in the BDO offices across Cooch Behar.

“The police in Delhi are trying to label the migrant workers of Bengal as Bangladeshis. This is harassment under the pretext of verification. We want the state government to take necessary steps,” he said.

Additional reporting by Main Uddin Chisti in Cooch Behar