Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SHP)

Bengaluru, Jan 27: Marathahalli police are strengthening their noose around alleged immigrants and have already begun the crackdown. Earlier in the week, the officials arrested three people belonging to a family in Munnekolala alleging that they are illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. Also, Marathahalli police officials detained and later released four other Bengali-speaking migrants after questioning them.

According to a report in The News Minute, a 44-year-old wholesale dealer Muhammad Sekh who is a resident of a migrant settlement in Thubarahalli close to Whitefield in Bengaluru claims that police took away four boys even after they showed their ID cards.

“In the Kaali Khaata, four boys were taken away by the police even though they had ID cards showing they are from Nadia district of West Bengal,” said Sekh.

Kaali Khaata (Bengali slang for waste picker) is the name given by residents in Thubarahalli for a cluster of sheds in Munnekolala, a migrant settlement located three kilometres away.

Reportedly, the arrests and detentions are part of renewed efforts by police officials in Bengaluru’s Whitefield division to identify alleged illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and register cases against them. In a report by The News Minute, MN Anuchet, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Whitefield division was quoted as saying, "Now, people want data on how many Bangladeshi immigrants are staying in Bengaluru so we will be filing FIRs and registering cases under the Foreigners Act."

As per the police sources, there are four migrant settlements in the Whitefield division — Munnekolala, Thubarahalli, Kariyammana Agrahara, and Devarabeesanahalli — where illegal Bangladeshi immigrants are believed to be residing. Like Thubarahalli, Kariyammana Agrahara falls within the shadows of high-rise apartment buildings, where residents have access to private pools and lush greenery. Soon after, a complaint by residents of the nearby apartments led to the doom of Kariyammana Agrahara settlers.

Demolition of the Kariyammana Agrahara

Before the arrests, on January 18, an excavator was sent at the behest of a Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) official to demolish sheds in Kariyammana Agrahara, after it was alleged that ‘illegal Bangladeshi immigrants' may have been residing there. Narayan Swamy, an assistant executive Engineer (AEE) in the BBMP's Mahadevapura division was the one to order the demolition after receiving complaints from the residents in apartments in Bellandur.

Before the demolition, a video claiming Bangladeshi immigrants were illegally staying in Bellandur went viral on WhatsApp.The video was also shared on Twitter by Mahadevapura’s BJP MLA Arvind Limbavali, a staunch believer of driving the ‘illegal Bangladeshi immigrants’ away. Interestingly, Limbavali opinions over the illegal immigrants took place much before talk of supposed implementation National Register of Citizens (NRC) in India.

A news report by Suvarna News, a Kannada channel, in the previous week, had also claimed the presence of Bangladeshi immigrants staying in the area. However, it has since been revealed that the BBMP did not have the authorisation to demolish the homes on private land, which lead to several sheds turning to heaps of rubble.

Muhammad, who came to Bengaluru from Nadia district of West Bengal three years ago, along with his wife Nargis Sekh (35), and two children Lalchand (17), and Sapna (12), says that Bengali-speakers are being targeted in the Bengaluru police’s search for illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. “Just because we speak Bengali, we are identified as Bangladeshis and we are being told to provide documents for the National Population Register (NPR) and NRC. But the people living here are from different places in West Bengal and other neighbouring states. We submitted our documents at the local (Varthur) police station when we were threatened with eviction last year,” Sekh added.

The four settlements

Located close to the bustling tech hub in the southeastern part of Bengaluru the four migrant settlements came up over a decade ago. To accommodate an influx of migrant workers in the construction industry the settlements began increasing in the number. As per the Sekh migrant workers from Bangladesh were enticed with the promise of daily wages which ultimately resulted in the influx of their kind.

The migrant settlements are clusters of tin-and-tarpaulin roofed sheds, where some have lived their whole lives. They have shops selling books, DVDs, mobile accessories, groceries and even sporting goods. Some shops also sell cell phones and SIM cards by which the people in the settlements can connect to the internet and the outside world.

“But all that we have is being taken away on the assumption that we are from Bangladesh," says Sekh, displaying his Aadhaar card, "If we are deported to Bangladesh, we don't have a certificate to prove that we left Bangladesh for India.”

The men staying in the migrant settlements work as ragpickers, housekeepers, construction workers, security guards, and drivers, in high-rise apartments surrounding their settlement while the women work as cooks and cleaners.

The settlements in Thubarahalli and Munnekolala are mostly made up of Bengali-speaking migrants. Around 6,700 migrant workers reside in Thubarahalli and 4000 migrant workers stay in Munnekolala, according to a survey conducted by a group of residents led by Abdul Jabbar. Abdul who arrived in the settlement 15 years ago as a construction worker now worked as a cleaner for an online home services aggregator. He also works as a part-time activist in helping organise the residents of migrant settlements in Thubarahalli and Munnekolala.

“Because people are constantly coming in and out of the settlement, we decided to conduct our survey to find out how many migrant workers are staying here,” Jabbar said.

In the course of the survey, the residents were asked to produce identification cards like Aadhaar card, PAN card or voter ID card much like the procedures of a survey conducted by the government. Jabbar says that more than 80% of the residents in Thubarahalli and Munnekolala are Bengali-speaking Muslims. However, he admits that some of the residents could be Bangladeshi immigrants without documents.

Meanwhile, activists from the Alternative Law Forum (ALF) estimate that there are around 15,000 residents in the migrant settlement in Kariyammana Agrahara, mostly from states like West Bengal, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. People from north Karnataka were found to be staying in Devarabeesanahalli.

Landowner paid fixed monthly rent

Landowners in settlement areas allow the construction of sheds to house migrant workers in exchange for a fixed monthly rent. The families in these houses pay rent of amounts ranging from Rs. 500 to Rs 2,000 per shed to a ‘supervisor’ who in turn pays the rent to the landowner. The 'supervisor' acts as a middleman, where he collects the rent from the tenants and pays a fixed amount to the landowner. In each shed, around two to four people reside in the 10-foot by the 10-foot-sized hut.

“There are around 300 small houses on my land. I am paid Rs 50,000 per month as fixed rent for this,” said Manjunath Gowda, owner of 2.5 acres of land in the settlement area in Thubarahalli.

A report by TNM stated that landowners, where migrant settlements are located, were not in charge of supplying the electricity and water for the residents in the settlements. The landowners are unsure of the means and ways these residents were availing the amenities as the BBMP, before the January 18 demolition cut off the water and electricity supply.

Distinguishing Bangladeshi immigrants

Police officials said that those found with Bangladeshi identity cards will be arrested and that those found with Indian identity cards will not be troubled. But residents in Thubarahalli and Munnekolala have stated that it is difficult for even a native Bengali speaker to distinguish someone who is from Bangladesh. Bengali is spoken on both sides of the 4,156 km long international border which runs along with the states of West Bengal, Assam, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura.

According to Sachindra Robin Mondal, a 61-year-old resident of Thubarahalli, the migrant settlements in Thubarahalli and Munnekolala are divided. On one side is the ‘Laal Maati’ (red earth) which constitutes Thubarahalli and part of Munnekolala, and is considered as the Indian side of the settlement. On the other side is Kaali Khaata, a part of the settlement in Munnekolala where Bangladeshi immigrants allegedly reside. Residents say that Kaali Khaata came up around six years ago.

“There is no distinguishable difference between Bangladeshis and Bengalis. We share a common culture. We wear similar clothes and ornaments and enjoy similar tastes in food and music. We speak a common language - Bengali,” said Mondal.

“There are slight variations in the accent and dialect. One common perception is that the words spoken by someone from Bangladesh seem slower, cautious and more formal but that cannot be used to identify someone as Bangladeshi,” he added.

Police officials say that they will only detain residents found with Bangladeshi identity cards but their claims are met with suspicion by the residents of Thubarahalli and Munnekolala. “I carry my documents with me everywhere I go now because you never know when the police will demand them,” said Jabbar. ”I hope that people who are from India are not harassed in the search for illegal Bangladeshi immigrants," he maintained.