Bhubaneswar: Soon after Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi dialled his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee on Sunday urging the latter to streamline potato supplies to Odisha, Banerjee called her Odisha counterpart and requested him to look into alleged incidents of assault on labourers from the neighbouring state there.
According to reports, Banerjee expressed concerns over incidents, an Odisha government official told the media.
“Several people have gone from West Bengal to Odisha to work. There are reports that they are being beaten up and tortured by locals suspecting them to be Bangladeshis. The Bengal CM spoke to her Odisha counterpart and requested him to look into the matter,” the official told a news agency.
The West Bengal Chief Minister also urged the labourers from her state to return to West Bengal as soon as possible and look for opportunities available here.
Incidentally, some workers from West Bengal were allegedly assaulted by miscreants suspecting them to be Bangladeshi nationals at Nuagaon in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district. Jagatsinghpur SP Rahul PR told the media, “Four to five sustained injuries in the incident. Initial investigation suggests that the attackers were under the influence of alcohol and targeted the labourers presuming them to be natives of the neighbouring country.”
