Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has accepted Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s offer to run 1,000 buses for migrant workers desperate to go home amid the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown.
The state government wrote to the Congress leader’s office demanding details of the buses, their numbers and the details of the drivers.
Awanish Awasthi, Uttar Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary (Home) writes to Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accepting her proposal to deploy 1000 buses for migrants. Seeks details of 1000 buses & drivers without delay. pic.twitter.com/6PrtlMQtYb
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) May 18, 2020
This comes two days after CM Adityanath accused the Congress leader of doing politics in the name of helping migrant workers.
Priyanka Gandhi had urged CM Adityanath to permit the party to arrange buses for stranded migrant workers. The appeal made on May 16 in a video message was on the same day when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman lashed out at her brother Rahul Gandhi for doing ‘dramabaazi’ after he interacted with migrants resting under a flyover in the national capital.
‘We want to run 500 buses from the Ghazipur border in Ghaziabad and a similar number of buses from the Noida border. The Congress party will bear the expense for the same. We will observe all the protocols while helping these migrant workers reach home. We seek permission to run these 1,000 buses,’ read a statement from Priyanka Gandhi’s office.
A day before Priyanka Gandhi’s appeal to the UP government, 24 migrant workers were killed when a trailer rammed a stationary truck on a highway near Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh.
‘Respected chief minister, I am requesting you, this is not the time for politics. Our buses are standing at the border. Thousands of labourers and migrants are walking towards their homes without food or water and after fighting all troubles. Let us help them. Give permission to our buses,’ Congress leader said in a video message.
In another tweet, she said, ‘Our buses are standing at the border. Thousands of nation-builders workers and migrants are walking in the sun. Give permission Yogi Adityanath ji. Let us help our brothers and sisters.’
She also put out a video of empty buses waiting at the state border and had ordered the Congress to arrange buses without UP government’s response to her appeal.
Congress Helps Migrant Worker Seeking Govt’s Help
Recently, a video shared by Indian journalist Salman Ravi, from BBC Hindi, showed a migrant worker weeping as he describes his situation.
‘We will die. We are poor people. How will we manage with our kids?’These migrant workers are trying to walk home 600kms away, in Madhya Pradeshhttps://t.co/0n8CghwN5U pic.twitter.com/1vsQHzOmVW
— BBC News India (@BBCIndia) May 15, 2020
‘He (PM Modi) can sit comfortably and ask for people to fetch things for himself, who will fetch things for us?’ the poor worker asked.
The group of migrants was walking from Ambala in Haryana to their village in Madhya Pradesh, a distance of 600kms.
After the video went viral on social media, members of the Indian National Congress, searched the group and helped them get on a bus to their village.
Positive news: Remember this man crying inconsolably while walking down to his home with family and kids? After the painful video went viral, the family was searched out by Congress workers, and with help of @priyankagandhi, they have now been sent on a bus to their homes! ✨ pic.twitter.com/LzSWzZJLxn
— Prashant Kumar (@scribe_prashant) May 16, 2020
In a follow-up video, the man is seen thanking Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, for helping them with transport and food.
Also Read: ‘Humara Kaun Hai?’: Migrant Workers Share Helplessness, Lack Of Support Amid Lockdown
