GURGAON: There is panic among migrant laborers and rickshaw-pullers here, especially those hailing from Bihar, following some crimes in which some Biharis were implicated,
The latest incident was the assault on the parents of the inspector general of police, B.R. Lall, last month, The deputy. Inspector general of police (Gurgaon range), K.Koshy, said that the description of the assailants matched those of Bihari migrants. The police rounded up a number of Bihari laborers for questioning.
Earlier, a Bihar laborer was arrested in connection with the killing of the son of an Ahir ex-serviceman in a nearby village. The Bihari laborer later confessed to the crime. The murder created tension among the villages, said the senior super intendant of police, S.N. Vasisht. The villagers held a panchayat and threatened to chase away the Bihari migrants.
Some local people tried to take advantage of the situation and beat up a few Bihari boys in the industrial area probably believing that if the Biharis left, the industries here would be left with no choice but to employ the locals,” Vasisht said,
Meanwhile the police decided to enforce an old directive of the director-general of police that the antecedents of all migrants should be verified, The police prepared “stranger rolls” of about 1,000 migrants, These included 860 Biharis employed in factories and farmhouses.
A “stranger roll” contains detailed particulars of the migrants along with his photograph. The roll is forwarded to the superintendent of police of the migrant’s district,
A week after the “stranger rolls” were prepared by the Gurgaon police, about 260 migrants fled from various parts of the district. These included 105 who quit jobs in the factories located in Udyog Vihar. “Those who have quietly fled might have a criminal background,” Vasisht said.
Koshy, however, pointed out that when he was the SSP, he had sent the “stranger roll” of a Bihari to verify his antecedents. The Bihar police officer who went for the verification extorted Rs.4,000 from the family of the migrant saying that if the money was not paid, their son in Haryana would be implicated in a criminal case, he narrated.
A leading industrialist, V.K Jain, said there was tension between the Biharis and locals in his factory following the murder of a Yadav boy by a poultry farm employee but this tension was dying down now.
A visit to the huts of Biharis and other migrants in various parts of Gurgaon found most of them living in fear, However, not one of them could give instances of harassment either by the police or by the local residents.
A young domestic servant said his uncle, a rickshaw-puller, had advised him not to leave his employer’s premises after dark. He said though he had not suffered any harm, he walked in fear if he had to go out after it was dark.
A 50-year-old Bihari, Ram Lakhan, who runs a cigarette shop outside a cinema hall, said some Biharis had committed crimes but these did not make every Bihari migrant a criminal.
Most migrants living here are men who have come here to eke out a living. They remit their petty savings back home by money order or one of them goes back home after three to four months and delivers the savings of all those hailing from nearby villages.
The owners of industries and farmhouses have no grouse against Bihari laborers,
The local bodies minister, Dharambir Gaba, who represents Gurgaon, denied any “Bihari” bhagao” campaign in Gurgaon. But the fact remains that the Bihari migrants here are a frightened lot.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 23, 1992
