Facing stiff resistance by the farmers on the Delhi borders after the enactment of the contentious farm laws, the Centre has shot off a communication to the Punjab Government virtually placing the agriculturists in the dock. The communiqué, seeking report from Punjab’s police and administrative heads, has accused the State’s farmers of allegedly forcing mentally-challenged youngsters from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to work in the fields as bonded labour under the influence of drugs, besides meting out inhuman treatment.
That was not all! The letter by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs claimed that these labourers, hailing from poor families residing in remote areas of the two states, were brought in Punjab in the name of “good salary”, but were paid “poorly”, meted out inhumane treatment.
Through the letter, addressed to the state Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police (DGP), the Centre has asked the Punjab Government to inform it on priority about the action taken in the matter.
A controversy has arisen over the Centre’s letter to Punjab Government with the state’s leaders questioning the “timing”, while dubbing the development as an attempt to discredit the state’s farmers.
Even as the two Cabinet Ministers, with whom The Pioneer tried to get in touch with over the issue, refused to comment over the issue, maintaining that it is upon the State Government to reply to the communication, they did not rule out the possibility that the letter has been sent due to the ongoing farmers’ agitation and in an attempt to “discredit” the farmers of the State.
“”Only the State Government would reply in this regard. But, all I can say is that the facts of any such incident have not been given in the letter, nor any evidence has been presented. It is also strange to ask for a report on the cases of 2019 and 2020 in March 2021, after almost two years,” said a Cabinet Minister, who did not wish to be named.
The Minister said that the letter has been sent due to the ongoing farmers’ movement. “This is an attempt to discredit the farmers of the state. This seems nothing more than an attempt to divide the agitating farmers of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh,” added the Minister.
“These are very unfortunate allegations. Punjab is known for langar…all the guru ghar have served selflessly,” said Congress MP from Amritsar Gurjeet Singh Aujla.
Blaming the Centre for making repeated attempts to create hurdles in the ongoing farmers’ protest, Aujla said: “Currently, they have made the decision to do away with arhtiyas and making direct payment to farmers a big issue due to the agitation. In the same way, Centre is making another allegation against Punjab which completely wrong and incorrect.”
Terming the Centre’s missive as a “ridiculous assumption aimed purely at defaming the state’s farmers”, SAD’s former MP Prem Singh Chandumajra said that the such letters from the Home Ministry would send a wrong signal across the country and would create an atmosphere of confrontation.
“The fact of the matter is that there is not one FIR of any person being forced to work as a bonded labourer in any of the areas mentioned in the letter. In fact, the opposite is true,” said Chandumajra adding that the farmers of Punjab pay labourers in advance for their services and that it why lakhs of migrant workers come to Punjab every year for planting of the paddy crop.
The former MP demanded that the report should be immediately withdrawn and the real reason why some mentally challenged people found their way to the border areas which were at the end of the railway lines should be examined.
BJP leader Harjit Singh Grewal, defending the Centre’s letter, maintained that the development has nothing to do with politics.”The Centre received some inputs which it has shared with the State Government. The BSF has apprehended these persons and given its report to the Centre…The MHA has not written this letter as such…If there is something like this happening in the State, it should be stopped,” said Grewal.
“There is no need to make it a political issue. This is an issue related with no political party or the Government. It has nothing to do with politics…It is something between the concerned Departments,” said Grewal while appealing to all political parties to let the agencies do its work.
WHAT THE LETTER SAYS?
The Centre, in a letter sent to the Punjab Chief Secretary and DGP on March 17, 2021, has informed the Punjab Government that 58 mentally challenged people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were found working as “bonded labourers” in the border districts of the State, and asked it to take appropriate action to deal with the “serious” problem.
The Ministry said that it had been informed by BSF that most of the 58 Indian nationals it had apprehended from the border areas of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Ferozepur and Abohar in 2019-2020, were found to be “either mentally challenged or in a feeble state of mind” and had been working as “bonded labourers” with farmers in border villages of Punjab.
The apprehended persons belonged to poor family background and hailed from remote areas of UP and Bihar.
“It has been further informed that human trafficking syndicates hire such labourers from their native place to work in Punjab on the promise of good salary, but after reaching Punjab, they are exploited, paid poorly, and meted out inhuman treatment. For making them work for long hours in fields, these labourers are often given drugs, which adversely affect their physical and mental condition,” read the MHA’s letter.
It added that the BSF had been handing over the rescued persons to the state police for further necessary action.
“Keeping in view the multi-dimensional and overwhelming enormity of the problem, which involves human-trafficking, bonded labour and human rights violation, you are requested to look into the matter and take appropriate measures to address this serious problem,” the Home Ministry told the Punjab Government.
“Action taken in the matter may please be informed to this ministry on priority,” said the letter signed by a deputy secretary-level officer of the MHA. A copy of the letter was also forwarded to the Union labour secretary Apurva Chandra. The Home Ministry also sent a copy of the letter to the Union Labour Secretary with the request to issue suitable instructions to all states, especially Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha for creating awareness amongst people to ensure that the poor are not duped by unscrupulous elements by making false promises for better job prospects.