Police,administration biased against migrants: AITUC secy

Amarjeet Kaur,secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress,today said the Ludhiana administration and the police have a strong “anti-migrant bias”. “This bias is evident from the fact that while the police have booked around 60 migrants,including four minors,for the December 3 and 4 clashes,not a single FIR has been lodged against any local,” she added.

Kaur,who visited families of migrants at Dhandari Kalan today along with union leaders Arun Mitra,D P Maur and Ramesh Rattan,said,“The police do not want to resolve the situation. They only want to subjugate the migrants. Had there been some arrests of locals too,a compromise could have been reached. What is worse is that there is no legal aid being provided to the migrants lodged in jails,something that is their fundamental right.”

She added,“The police have arrested four minors,saying that they work in local factories and were involved in rioting. Now administration needs to answer as to how Ludhiana factory owners are employing child labour,when it is against the law.

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“The reality is that the police picked up a large number of migrants on the night of December 3 from their homes. Many of the migrants arrested had nothing to do with the clashes and were not even present on the spot,” she claimed.

She said the union will meet the Ludhiana DC to ask for a “fair deal” and press for release of the minors immediately. “In case the administration does not listen to us,we will raise this issue at the national level and the Punjab government will have to answer some very significant questions,” she added.