UP govt and AAP in war of words over migrants’ exodus from Delhi
LUCKNOW : The exodus of migrant workers from Delhi after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s announcement of a sixday curfew has sparked war of words between the Uttar Pradesh government and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Siddharth Nath Singh, UP government spokesperson and MSME minister, alleged that the Delhi government had meted out step-motherly treatment to migrant workers belonging to UP and Bihar. “To hide the failure of his government, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has announced a six-day lockdown in the National Capital in haste,” he said.
The Delhi government failed to provide beds, hospitals and other facilities to Covid patients and when health services collapsed, they announced lockdown without any preparations, said Singh.
“The migrants were dumped on the Delhi-UP border on Monday night. The hapless people were left to their fate. Earlier too during the nationwide lockdown in March last year, the Delhi government had dumped the migrant workers,” he added.
To send the hapless migrants home, the UP government acted swiftly. On direction of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, fleets of government and private buses were sent to Anand Vihar and Kaushambi bus stations located on Delhi border, said the minister. “Over one lakh migrants were sent home on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday,” said Singh.
Countering the statement of the UP minister, AAP (Uttar Pradesh unit) spokesperson Vaibhav Maheshwari said: “While announcing the six-day curfew, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had said lockdown has been imposed for a small period to break the Covid infection chain.”
“In a video message, he also appealed to migrants workers to stay in Delhi as the state government was arranging for their food and shelter. The Delhi government is providing all facilities to migrants including medical, food and lodging,” he added.
Maheshwari said the UP government failed to provide basic facilities to Covid patients across the state and large number of them was not getting beds and oxygen in hospitals. “The UP government has failed in Covid management whereas the Delhi government is working in a sensitive manner to provide medical facilities to Covid patients,” he said.
A state government officer said the buses ferrying migrants from the Delhi border had been sent to all districts. Around 1,400 buses left the Anand Vihar and Kaushambi bus stations on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday with migrants workers heading home in UP.
The DMs of all 75 districts were directed to screen migrants. those with Covid symptoms will stay in quarantine facilities set up by the government or in home isolation.
Village surveillance committees will maintain vigil on migrants and monitor their health conditions. According to the guidelines issued by the state government, migrants coming from other states will have to stay in seven days’ home quarantine, even if they do not have Covid symptoms, he added.