Bengaluru: The state labour department, on Friday sought a report from Kodagu district’s SP on the legality of the document verification drive that police took up on Thursday by rounding up nearly 5,000 labourers, mostly from Assam and Bengal
The matter was brough to the notice of Labour Secretary P Manivannan on Twitter, following which he sought a report from the SP.
While this episode evoked sharp criticism, with many opposing the same and calling it unwanted at a juncture of time when tension has gripped the nation due to CAA and NRC, a contradicting statement by the Inspector General of Police and the local MLA has made way for confusion.
The police had summoned thousands of workers from the coffee plantations of the district to three centres – Madikeri, Virajpet and Kushalnagar – to show their documents.
After the exercise, Kodagu SP Suman D Pannekar said that while over 5,000 migrant workers’ documents were checked, at least 500 workers did not have documents.
IG southern range Vipul Kumar, who clarified that the drive had nothing to do with the CAA and the NRC, told CNN-News18: “It was not a drive, but planters were told that if there were workers with no valid identity, then they could come to ensure their validity or identity. So to ensure that everything is done right, they must have all come. That definitely was not the SP’s intention I am sure,” he told CNN-News18.
The IG stated that it was an important exercise because a person from Assam was an accused in a murder case in Kodagu and the plantation owner did not have any details about him.
However, what caused confusion is a statement by the BJP MLA from Virajpet, who said that the programme was held to ‘identify Bangladeshis’.
MLA KG Bopaiah said that many feel that there are terrorists in the region and they had a role in the Mangaluru riots. “There is a need to find out how many people from Bangladesh and other places are here. We must know if they are citizens of India or not,” Bopaiah said.
