Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Wednesday said that at least four first information reports had been filed against various groups after migrant workers in the state were allegedly assaulted and checked for “work permits”, reported The Economic Times.
Sangma clarified that there is no such thing as a “work permit” for workers from outside the state. All migrant workers are nevertheless required to be registered with the state labour department, the chief minister said, adding that this was the responsibility of the contractors who hired them.
“Nobody is authorised to check these papers of the workers,” Sangma added, according to the newspaper. He said that any individual or organisation doing so was on the “wrong side of the law”.
The police on Thursday told Scroll that no arrests had been made in the matter yet.
The Khasi Students’ Union had on Tuesday checked migrant workers for “work permits” amid its renewed calls for the implementation of an Inner Line Permit in Meghalaya, reported The Indian Express.
In a video of the alleged incident circulating on social media, a technician from Delhi, who identified himself as Sonu, claimed that a few persons entered Shillong’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Tuesday and began rounding up the workers, The Indian Express reported.
The Inner Line Permit, a document required by foreigners and non-local Indian citizens to visit designated “protected areas” in the North East, is a long-standing demand of tribal groups in Meghalaya. The permit is applicable in Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and most of Nagaland.
Work is currently underway at the stadium in Shillong in preparation for the Durand Cup, a football tournament that is set to begin this month.
Sonu alleged that three of the men began hitting him as they ordered him to stand with the other workers.
“This incident makes me want to leave,” he can be heard saying in the video, according to The Indian Express. “I have spoken to my company and they have also asked me to leave.”
On Wednesday, the state Human Rights Commission took suo motu cognisance of the alleged incident and issued a notice to the superintendent of police, East Khasi Hills district, to submit a detailed report within two weeks, reported The Economic Times.
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