Get police verification done or move out, Mohali village panchayat tells migrants

Tension prevailed in Buta Singh Wala village near Banur after village panchayat issued a diktat to migrant labourers without police verification to relocate outside the village boundary by April 30.

The development comes after an April 13 resolution directing the migrant workers to get their police verification process complete at the earliest.

Sarpanch Jarnail Singh said, “We do not know the identities of these persons and the village residents have expressed apprehension of anti-social element mingling with them. There is no diktat to banish them from village. There is harmony in the village. Migrant labourers’ children play with ours. Today too, they are having langar with us.”

Village residents also reaffirmed that they have only asked for tenant verification through the panchayat.

“The gram panchayat has decided that all illegal migrants living inside the boundary of village be kept away from the residential area keeping in view the safety and security of women and the brotherhood in the village. All the illegal migrants are required to gettheir tenant verification done by April 30,” reads the notice by gram panchayat.

Addressing the issue, Banur station house officer Gursewak Singh said, “It appears that there is no ‘migrants vs locals’ issue or forcing someone of the village. It is a peaceful village. The residents’ only concern is that persons living here on rent should have their antecedents verified.”