Congress offers to ply 1,000 buses for stranded migrants returning to UP

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra writes to Adityanath

The Congress party today offered to ply 1,000 buses for migrants workers stranded outside to return to their homes in Uttar Pradesh as a nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus outbreak continues.

In a letter addressed to UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Congress general secretary in charge of UP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said tens of thousands of migrant labourers were coming back to the state following lockdown.

“Despite a series of announcements by the government, they are on foot and there is no arrangement to safely take them to their native places,” she said.

Priyanka claimed so far about 65 migrant workers had been killed in separate road accidents in UP, which was quite high even in the face of the Covid-19 casualties.

 

With a view to fulfilling its obligation towards the hapless migrant labourers, she observed, All India Congress Committee (AICC) has planned to run, out of its own expenses, 500 buses from Ghaziabad and Noida borders in UP respectively.

Seeking the permission of the state government to ply the buses, the party assured it would adhere to all the safety norms while facilitating the transportation of the migrant workers.

Terming labourers as ‘nation builders’, the party underlined they could not be left in the lurch and claimed Congress was committed to helping them in the present crisis.

Meanwhile, a party delegation led by UP Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu and UP Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Aradhana Mishra Mona submitted Vadra’s letter to the UP Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) here.

 

Interestingly, the Adityanath government has claimed that 12,000 roadways buses had been deployed across the state to ferry migrant labourers to their native places after they arrive by ‘Shramik Special’ trains.

So far, 449 trains have come to UP from states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan etc. Of these, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Punjab account for the maximum number of trains.

The government has also urged the migrants not to venture on foot or take to unauthorised means in their desperation to return.