“Until now, the planters collected the workers’ identity documents and submitted copies to the nearest police station. One factor fanning the NRC fears would have been Sunday’s police demolition of shanties in Bangalore in the name of identifying illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. As ordered, the Kodagu planters took their 5,000-odd workers to the three verification centres at the police stations of Madikeri, Virajpet and Kushalnagar. She said the police had “for years” been checking plantation workers’ documents to “crack down on bonded labour, build a database of who worked in which estate, and trace any worker suspected of criminal activity”. “We planters make it a point to collect the workers’ documents when they arrive and submit copies to the nearest police station.

Source: The Telegraph January 24, 2020 20:26 UTC