As a convoy of 200 buses hired by the Congress to ferry migrant workers to their home towns waited at the inter-State border at Uncha Nagla in the Bharatpur district for permission to enter Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday expressed concern over the hardship of the migrants, whose condition was becoming ‘unbearable’.
While the labourers, accompanied by their family members, were lodged at temporary shelter homes established by the district administration and the Bharatpur-based Lupin Foundation, Minister of State for Technical Education Subhash Garg and several Congress leaders reached the border to make an attempt for sending the buses amid the political tussle.
Dr. Garg said the State government had planned to bring back Rajasthani migrants from U.P. on the return journey of the buses. “Instead of exchanging letters with the office of AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, the U.P. government should have written to the Collectors of the border districts with the orders to communicate with their counterparts in Rajasthan and take in the buses,” he said.
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Kumar Lallu was detained when he staged a dharna with the partymen on the Bharatpur-Agra highway with the demand that the buses be allowed to move.
Mr. Gehlot said the buses offered by Ms. Priyanka Gandhi could have helped the U.P. government avoid the Ghazipur-like stampede situation and facilitated the movement of migrants. “In this hour of crisis, we all should welcome such an initiative, keeping politics aside,” he tweeted.
Mr. Gehlot said the migrant workers were becoming more and more restless with each passing day. He said the Rajasthan government had already started running “Shramik special” buses to ensure that no migrant was seen walking on the road.
“I request the Central government to coordinate similar kind of bus services across the country where train load is not available,” Mr. Gehlot said.