A delegation of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs on Sunday visited the Jai Hind Camp in Vasant Kunj, south Delhi, home to Bengali-speaking migrants mostly from West Bengal’s Cooch Behar, days after power supply was discontinued in the area on the directions of the Delhi High Court.
The delegation, comprising Rajya Sabha members Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sagarika Ghose and Saket Gokhale, said the slum dwellers told them that they have been living without electricity for the last five to six days.
“We found that there are hundreds of families from Cooch Behar that have been living here for the past 20-25 years. The majority of them work as rag-pickers, and they are being asked to move as the private owners of the land want them out. We will send a detailed report to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,” said Mr. Roy.
The TMC MP appealed to political parties and social organisations to help the residents of the camp, whom he said were living in “subhuman conditions”.
“Just because they are Bengali-speaking, they are being targeted by the authorities and subject to inhuman actions. We must find some place for them to live,” he said.
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of being “anti-Bengali”, Ms. Banerjee, last week, in a post on X, said, “There are over 1.5 crore migrant workers in Bengal who live with dignity. But the same cannot be said for BJP-ruled States, where Bengalis are being treated as infiltrators in their own country. Speaking Bengali does not make one a Bangladeshi. They are as much citizens of India as anyone else, regardless of what language they speak.”
The police had conducted a verification drive in the area last year, following Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena’s orders.
Published – July 14, 2025 01:34 am IST