Trinamool Congress has alleged that dead bodies of the workers arrived in pathetic condition from Mizoram.
KOLKATA
Sitting on the verandah of her one-storey house in Malda district’s Sattari area, 32-year-old Smriti Sarkar is at a loss for words. A few days ago, she had a family. Now, she is mourning the death of her husband, son, father and brother—all killed after an under-construction railway bridge collapsed in Sairang, near Aizawl in Mizoram on Wednesday.
Abdul Sattar is mourning the death of his 20-year-old son. “My son Sariful Sheikh was working there. The only earning member of my family is no more,” he said.
All five, like many others from the district, had gone to Mizoram a month ago to work as labourers in the railway project. Now, 26 of them are dead.
Thirteen victims were from Chouduar village in Malda, and, of these six from one family. A pall of gloom has descended on the village. On Thursday, leaders of Trinamool Congress, including Ministers, and Samirul Islam, a newly elected Rajya Sabha MP who has just been named as the first chairman of the West Bengal Migrant Workers Welfare Development Board, visited Chouduar village. The state government will extend an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each, West Bengal’s Minister of State for Irrigation Sabina Yasmin informed the bereaved families.
On Friday, West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose visited Malda by train. He handed over cheques of Rs. 9.5 lakh sent by the Ministry of Railways along with a cash grant of Rs. 50,000 to each family of the deceased workers in Malda in the presence of Railway officials.
The Governor then visited Chauduar village under the Pukhuria police station to meet the families of the deceased on Friday afternoon. Before departing for Chauduar, the Governor read out a condolence message. “I am completely shocked by the death of so many workers. It is not the time for criticism in any form. Everyone should support the families of the deceased workers,” stated the Governor.
As leaders across political parties made a beeline for Malda, a political slugfest erupted over the deaths. The Trinamool Congress alleged that the dead bodies of the migrant workers arrived in a pathetic condition from Mizoram on Friday.
Samirul Islam alleged: “The bodies of these poor people were not sent properly. They were dripping blood all over. This is a sign of disrespect to the dead bodies. I will raise this issue in the Rajya Sabha.”
The bodies of 18 migrant labourers reached Malda in ambulances at around 7 pm on Friday and were taken straight to the Malda Medical College and Hospital. The District Administration received the bodies at the Malda Medical College and dispatched them in hearses to the families. “The Governor was in Malda when the dead bodies arrived. However, he did not come to the Medical College to show his respects but he could visit the families to hand over cheques and cash,” alleged Krishnendu Narayan Chowdhury, Chairman, English Bazar Municipality.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged all the migrant workers to return to the State and start their own enterprises with subsidised loans from ‘Bhabishyat’ credit card. Banerjee also slammed the Railways for frequent accidents and loss of lives. The Chief Minister demanded that the Central government give one job to a family member of each labourer who died in the Mizoram tragedy.
The Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said the incident exposes the lack of job opportunities in West Bengal which is forcing lakhs of migrant labourers from the State to travel outside in search of jobs.
“Some of these jobs pose grave danger to their lives. These opportunities are offered to them by middlemen as they provide labour at cheap rates. But the risk always lurks as many of them do not possess the skills required for such jobs. But they are left with no choice as the West Bengal Government has failed to create employment opportunities in the state,” Adhikari said.
Reacting to Adhikari’s comments, State Minister for Industries, Commerce & Enterprises, Shashi Panja, termed them as totally untrue. “When lakhs of migrant workers were returning home on foot during the Covid pandemic in 2020, the Union Government did not have any statistics on migrant workers. West Bengal is the only state which is deprived of Central funds under the MGNREGA scheme.
“The Leader of the Opposition should know that many workers are associated with the 100-day job scheme under MGNREGA. The Union Government has actually forced them to become migrant workers, since no Central funds under the MGNREGA scheme have been provided to the West Bengal Government since 2021,” Panja claimed.
Samirul Islam told The Sunday Guardian: “Even though Uttar Pradesh and Bihar send a far larger number of workers outside their States, West Bengal, which is at number three, is the first state to actually constitute a Migrant Workers Welfare Development Board.”
The first step is to have fool-proof data about the number of workers who go outside the State, he said, adding that the state government was working to prepare a list of migrant workers and the labour contractors who take them. This would be done at the “Duare Sarkar”camps to be held from September 1.
The Board would also set up a portal to register the workers living in other States. The state government would also station a Nodal Officer in New Delhi shortly to coordinate with other States on all matters concerning the migrant labour population. A fool-proof database will help us reach out to anybody who is in distress and also cut down cases of women trafficking, he said.
The state government wants poor citizens to take advantage of the 64 social security programmes and not leave the state for work, he added. Islam informed that the state government wanted people to stop going to other states to work. “Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wants people to stay in the state and set up small businesses using a Rs 5 lakh loan which will be guaranteed by the government.”