Some of the men from Nakashipara, 130km from Calcutta, who fled Maharashtra. (Below) Chandrani Mondal and Shreya Biswas. Pictures by Amit Biswas

Nakashipara, March 25: A little girl’s fight against a life-threatening disease in Bengal has got derailed because some people in Maharashtra thought there was no room for “outsiders” in their state.

At least 80 men from this village in Nadia had to flee their workplace near Pune a fortnight ago to escape the marauding cadres of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

The men are home safe, but their families are staring at uncertainty.

The Rs 8,000 a month Pronab Mondal used to earn as a construction labourer funded his seven-year-old niece Chandrani’s thalassaemia treatment.

The Mondals do not know how to foot her next medical bill. Chandrani’s uncle could not even collect his February salary before taking the train to Bengal.

The parents of 12-year-old Shreya Biswas, who have a yet-to-be-diagnosed brain ailment, have also been driven to the wall. Her father Uttam, too, has come back.

Pronab, 25, went to Chakhole three years ago after his jobless brother’s daughter was detected with thalassaemia.

“We require at least Rs 2,000 a month for Chandrani. She needs two units of blood for transfusion every two months. I decided to take up the job in Maharashtra so that she could be treated. It is not possible for me to earn Rs 8,000 a month in Bengal,” said the Class IV dropout.

Chandrani goes to a local school, where she is in Class II.

Pronab’s plans went haywire when Raj started his campaign against non-Marathis. “His men beat up those from Bihar and spared us on the condition that we would leave the state the next day,” he said.

One of the attackers, he said, “slashed the arm of a man from Bihar with a dagger and almost severed it”.

The mob had also raided the house of Swapan Mondal, 26, and his brother Tarun, 24.

“Armed with daggers, they barged into our house and started beating us up. We said we were from Bengal, though we spoke Hindi. They realised we were Bengalis and told us to return to Bengal immediately,” said Swapan.

Khokan Mondal, 26, found a poster outside his rented house: “Those from Bengal go back or get killed.”

Pronab said he wanted to stay back, though he was scared. “But then our employer told us to get out. We had no option left.”

Shreya’s father Uttam, 42, used to earn Rs 6,000 a month till January. The family income is zero now.

“After I went to Chakhole in 2005, my wife could take my daughter to a doctor. They have still not been able to figure out why she gets the splitting headaches and bouts of unconsciousness,” he said.

A neurosurgeon in Calcutta has prescribed a CT scan, but the parents cannot afford one. “The test alone will cost nearly Rs 2,000,” said Uttam.

The local panchayat has provided Pronab, Uttam and 18 others with work under the central rural job scheme. They get Rs 70 a day now.

“It is not possible to provide jobs to everyone,” said panchayat pradhan Asraf Hussein Khan.

Nadia district magistrate Onkar Singh Meena said the administration would “try to arrange loans if they want to start a business”.