TMC MP Sagarika Ghose.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs concluded their 24-hour dharna at Delhi's Jai Hind Camp on Tuesday as they raised concern over the inhuman living conditions faced by locals with electricity being disconnected.
Speaking at the conclusion of the sit-in protest, TMC's Rajya Sabha deputy leader Sagarika Ghose said being Bengali-speakers is the only crime of the residents of the Jai Hind Camp.
"People here are living in inhuman conditions. Electricity has been disconnected, there is a water problem, the roads are full of slush and houses are getting flooded during rains.... This is the kind of sub-human condition that these citizens of India are being forced to exist in. Why is this happening to them?" Ghose asked.
She accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of launching a "campaign" against Bengali-speaking migrant workers.
"Anyone who speaks Bengali is somehow a Bangladeshi or Rohingya.... A foreigner or an illegal alien. The fact is, they are all citizens of India. We have been here for the last two days, we have seen their papers, we have seen their Aadhaar cards, we have seen all their documentation," Ghose said.
The Jai Hind Camp, which lies amid posh sectors of Delhi's Vasant Kunj and Masoodpur village, is an informal settlement housing around 5,000 migrant workers, who say they hail from the Coochbehar area of West Bengal. Most of the locals are daily wagers, domestic workers, junk dealers and sanitation workers.
The slush-and-sewage-covered road that leads to the settlement is lined with garbage-filled dumpsters. Electricity was disconnected to the camp following a court order in an encroachment case on July 8.
Locals have complained that they are unable to sleep at night.
"We have small rooms where we cook, keep our belongings and live. With no electricity, it is extremely difficult to do anything, even sleeping is impossible," said Nabi Hussain, a local.
Ruma, another resident of the colony, said children are the worst affected.
"The children are not able to sleep at night. They are not able to study. We were not told anything, we came back from work and saw that the electricity was disconnected," she said.
Locals claimed that they are facing discrimination for being Bengali-speaking people. They said the Delhi Police conducted a verification a few months ago and not a single "Bangladeshi or Rohingya" was found in the locality.
Ghose meanwhile slammed the BJP for allegedly targeting Bengalis as the party has failed to win elections in the state.
"The BJP cannot tolerate Bengal. The BJP cannot digest that it has lost two elections in Bengal. Therefore, it is taking out its anger and revenge against these vulnerable, helpless people who are innocent migrant labourers from Coochbehar," she said.
Ghose, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Dola Sen and Saket Gokhale started the sit-in protest in a community hall in the locality on Monday afternoon.