Key aide of Nitish Kumar blames Kejriwal govt for mass exodus;fears ripple effect

The heavy influx of migrant workers into Bihar from Delhi has caused a ripple effect with people living elsewhere, including adjoining Nepal, thronging the states borders, almost defeating the purpose of the 21- day lockdown, a key aide of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said.

Sanjay Kumar Jha, the state's water resources minister and national general secretary of the JD(U), squarely blamed the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi for the situation and questioned its claims that migrants were being taken care of in the national capital.

"I am the party's in-charge for Delhi and my contacts have been telling me how buses were pressed into service to drop migrants at the UP border. They were misled by the Aam Aadmi Party with claims that the lockdown might be extended to three months. This created panic," Jha said here on Monday.

Migrants in Delhi were "made to feel they had nowhere to go except their homes and when they landed at Bihar's borders in buses arranged by the Yogi Adityanath government in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh they grew restive and refused to be stay at the relief camps "despite adequate arrangements for food and medicines", the JD(U) leader claimed.

"We had to arrange for transportation of nearly 25,000 migrants to their native places. There are people staying put at the scores of relief camps set up along Bihar's borders with UP, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Nepal. But they have to do so willingly. We cannot use excessive force, Jha said.

He also pointed out that the suspension of two government officials in Delhi for violation of lockdown "vindicates what the Bihar chief minister has been saying