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Odisha official snaps at migrant workers as they ask for water, video goes viral
The officer said the issue was being blown out of proportion in a bid to defame her.
While Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik has been urging officials and people to treat all returning migrant workers with dignity and respect, a video of a block development officer verbally abusing the migrants in a Covid red zone has gone viral on social media.
In the video, Chhabirani Sahoo, the Block Development Officer of Baliapal in Balasore district-- a red zone with 90 Covid-19 cases-- was seen snapping at the migrant workers after they asked for drinking water.
Officials said 760 Odia migrants arrived in Balasore from Thangarh, Gujarat by a Shramik special train at around 11 am on Wednesday. After their medical screening, they were sent in 40 buses to different quarantine centres in Balasore and Myurbhanj districts. A group of migrant workers sent to Baliapal, reached the office of Block Development Officer at around 1 pm.
Instead of quickly taking them to a quarantine centre, the BDO reportedly kept the migrant workers waiting inside the bus for an hour. The migrant workers alleged that when they asked for water, the BDO mocked them asking if they would die of thirst.
“You are hassling us by coming from outside and when we try to help, you create problems for us,” the BDO was heard saying in the video. The officer was seen snapping at the migrant workers asking them to shut up when they protested.
“You people are talking too much. Choop (shut up),” she said.
The migrant workers alleged that the officer called them illiterate and threatened them against raising voices.
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However, the BDO said she had asked the migrant workers to take shelter in the temporary sheds at the office premises. “Some of them argued with me and I had to use harsh words. These people are unnecessarily making an issue out of nothing and are trying to defame me,” she said.
Ahead of the return of migrant workers to Odisha, the state government last month emphasised on three crucial aspects - privacy, safety and dignity. During his meeting with officials, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had made it clear that all the migrants have equal rights over the soil, water and air of Odisha, similar to that of an educated, well-off urban individual.
