Congress MP asks West Bengal CM to compile database of migrant labourers & send it to Centre

The veteran Congress leader in his letter urged the CM to compile a database of district-wise data of migrant labourers and to send the information to the Centre so that such workers can avail the scheme. "I have learnt that the Prime Minister of India has unveiled a scheme of financial contribution for the migrant workers which stipulates that minimum 25,000 migrant workers should be present in any district of any state and will fulfil the eligibility for the scheme.

Congress MP Pradip Bhattacharya in a letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that a large number of migrant workers have not been registered in their native districts and hence deprived of the Prime Minister's benefit scheme for such people. The veteran Congress leader in his letter urged the CM to compile a database of district-wise data of migrant labourers and to send the information to the Centre so that such workers can avail the scheme.

"I have learnt that the Prime Minister of India has unveiled a scheme of financial contribution for the migrant workers which stipulates that minimum 25,000 migrant workers should be present in any district of any state and will fulfil the eligibility for the scheme. "However the government of India is saying that the migrant workers of our state are unable to take the benefit of the scheme as district-wise data of such workers are not available to them," Bhattacharya said in his letter to the chief minister on Saturday.

This deprived the migrants of the central benefit scheme during COVID-19 situation, the Congress Rajya Sabha MP said. "It may be added in West Bengal the population of migrant labourers in 7-10 districts are more than 25,000 but the districts are not being enrolled in the list of 116 eligible districts published by the government of India," he said in the letter.

Bhattacharya also urged the CM to share the district- wise database of migrant workers with all MPs from the state so that they can unitedly work to ensure migrant labourers from West Bengal are not deprived of their dues. In June, when migrant labourers were coming back to state either by special trains or other modes of transport, West Bengal government said a mobile app was being prepared to store detailed information about such returnees during the lockdown, as well as their families.

The labour department was collecting data on nearly 11 lakh workers who have come back from other states (till first week of June), officials had said. "The data collection process is in the final stage of completion," state Labour Minister Moloy Ghatak had said at that time.

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