BJP to prepare database of migrant labourers in West Bengal

KOLKATA: In a decision which is likely to have consequences in the 2021 assembly polls, the West Bengal BJP has decided to prepare a database of migrants labourers who have returned to the state during the lockdown to help them find means of livelihood.

The ruling TMC sniffed politics in the proposed plan of the BJP and said it was due to the “unplanned” country-wide lockdown that the migrant workers were facing a crisis.

State BJP president and MP Dilip Ghosh told PTI that party cadres across the state will start preparing the database of the migrant workers who have returned to their homes in every block from this month.

“Our party cadres will conduct surveys and collect the names of the migrant workers. They will prepare a brief data bank on them with all details – educational background, field of work, skills and last drawn salary,” he said.

He said the party will also pursue the Centre to help those migrant workers who have decided to stay back in their place of work to find jobs or get some loans to start a business on their own.

Asked the reason for the BJP taking such a step, Ghosh said the state has no data on lakhs of migrant labourers who are working in various parts of the country.

“The state government has failed to provide them jobs and any other form of relief. When the lockdown is completely lifted, many of them will go back to other states in search of jobs. But many would prefer to stay back. What will they do? So we have decided to help them,” he said.

Hitting out at the saffron party, TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said, “It is due to the BJP that this crisis of migrant labourers took place. This (proposed database of migrant labourers) is nothing but shedding of crocodile tears and an attempt to hide its failures ahead of the state assembly polls.”

Last week, Union home minister Amit Shah had said that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee “insulted” migrant workers returning to the state by ‘Shramik Special’ trains by calling them ‘Corona Express’, as he tried to reach out to the vast constituency of harried migrants and their families.

Shah had also asserted that the migrant workers would now ensure the “exit” of the Banerjee government in the 2021 assembly polls.

The chief minister had denied having called the ‘Shramik Special’ trains and insisted the name was given by the people to the crammed-to-capacity trains.