West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday announced that all refugee settlements which are there in the state since March 1971 will become regularised.
"We have decided to regularise all the lands (refugee settlements), solely because it has been a long time now. Since (March) 1971, they have been left hanging without a home or land. I believe refugees who have been living in Bengal for a long time have the right," Banerjee said at Nabanna, the secretariat of West Bengal after she flagged off vehicles carrying relief material for the cyclone Bulbul affected people in North and South 24 Pargana.
Banerjee also targeted the Centre for not regularising the land on which the refugees had been living for a long time.
"They are living on the Centre's land but still the central government is not regularising them. Since 1971, it is almost 48 years now but still they are left hanging without a home or land," Banerjee said.
"More than 70,000 families were already regularised in the state," she continued.
Banerjee further said that the TMC-led government in the state had tried convincing the Centre to regularise the refugee colonies countless times in the past. "However, they used to send eviction notices," she said.
( With inputs from ANI )