Priyanka appeals to Yogi as Cong brings buses to border
LUCKNOW/BHARATPUR: Congress national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday took to Twitter to post two video messages addressed to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, urging him to grant permission for buses transporting stranded migrant workers to enter UP.
Her appeal came a day after Gandhi sought Adityanath’s nod to run 1,000 buses to send migrant workers back to their native places amid the coronavirus lockdown. A report from Bharatpur, quoting Congress leaders, said the party has already hired 500 buses and brought them to the Uttar Pradesh-Rajasthan border at Bahaj village under Deeg police station limits of Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district and was waiting for permission from the Uttar Pradesh government to enter the state. Priyanka’s second tweet came an hour after the first. Repeating the appeal, she said, “It’s not time to do politics.”
She said buses were at the border while thousands of ‘nationbuilding migrant workers’ are walking in the sun.
“Our buses are there at the borders... grant permission and let us help our brothers and sisters,” she said.
“Blank announcements and cheap politics will not work. Operate more trains, run more buses. We have asked for permission for 1,000 buses. Let us serve,” she said in the first tweet on Sunday. “There are many labourers on every side of the border of UP. They are walking in the sun, today they are being kept standing for hours. They are not allowed through. They have no work for the last 50 days. Livelihood is at a standstill,” Gandhi’s tweet read.
In the second tweet, she, in a video message to Yogi Adityanath, said: “Respected chief minister, I request you, it’s not the time for politics. Our buses are waiting. Thousands of migrant brothers-sisters are walking on empty stomach and with lot of hardships. Let us help them. Permit our buses.”
Meanwhile, Rajasthan health minister Dr Subhash Garg said, “We are here at the border with buses. I request Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to give us permission for our buses to help the migrants.”
Another senior party leader Zubair Khan said the Congress was not playing politics on migrants during the Covid-19 crisis. “We want to help the poor migrants.”