Haryana, Rajasthan send migrant workers back to UP

LUCKNOW: Amid the blame game between UP and Delhi over the exodus of migrant workers, Haryana and Rajasthan have also started pushing UP labourers working there to the state’s borders.

UP chief secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwari said, “This is true our residents working in states like Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan are returning to UP in big numbers despite our repeated calls that people should stay put where they are. We are also promising them that UP government will make all arrangements for food and shelter there only.”

Tiwari said nodal officers had been appointed for each state where UP’s labourers worked and stayed, asking them to set up control rooms and ensure people had no difficulty with regard to food and shelter.

There are reports that Haryana has dispatched 500-600 buses with UP migrants to different cities in the state, including Lucknow. About 50 buses of Haryana State Roadways Corporation reached the state capital till 6pm.

Pallab Bose, UP State Roadways Corporation (UPSRTC) manager of Luckow region, said Haryana buses with passengers on board were reaching Lucknow via the Agra-Lucknow Expressway.

“We are trying to get these buses to carry our people to their destinations (elsewhere in the state) but if Haryana authorities do not agree we will receive them here near Kakori and then dispatch them to their respective districts by our buses,” he said.

According to people familiar with the developments, divisional commissioner Mukesh Meshram got inputs about a large number of buses with UP workers coming from Haryana to Lucknow and other cities. Thereafter, he alerted UPSRTC managing director Raj Shekhar too.

As for Rajasthan, sources said the entry points from Rajasthan were Agra and Mathura, and UPSRTC was handling transportation of migrants through its buses from thereon.

The abrupt, mass exodus started from Delhi on Friday.

After initially taking the stand that it will not allow any person to move from one district to another during the lockdown, the UP government had to operate special buses in the night to take its people home after they massed at different locations on the UP borders.

UP’s minister of state for transport (independent charge) Ashok Katariya alleged the exodus from Delhi was the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) doing.

TWITTER WAR

The blame game began on Saturday with Delhi’s AAP legislator Raghav Chadha’s tweet in which he alleged that the UP police were beating people who were going back to their home state. The tweet was later deleted.

Reacting to Chadha’s remark, UP CM’s media advisor Mritunjay Kumar also posted a tweet, accusing the AAP government of forcing migrants to leave.

BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh also tweeted: “Migrants workers tell on camera that they were told that buses will be there at Anandvihar ... DTC buses drop them to Anand Vihar ... Some forces want India to fail when #IndiaFightsCorona. Nation will not forgive them.”

Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia rebutted BJP leaders’ charges and advised them to “desist from indulging into cheap politics in the time of crisis.”