As a convoy of 200 buses hired by the Congress to ferry migrant workers to their hometowns waited at the inter-State border at Uncha Nagla in Bharatpur district for permission to enter Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday expressed concern over the hardships of 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 Bharatpur-based Lupin Foundation, Minister of State for Technical Education Subhash Garg and several Congress leaders reached the Rajasthan-U.P. 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 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 border districts with the orders to communicate with their counterparts in Rajasthan and take in the buses,” he said.
U.P. 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 stranded at the border be allowed to move.
‘Welcome initiative’
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 condition of migrant workers was becoming unbearable and with each passing day they were becoming more and more restless. He said the Rajasthan government had already started running ‘Shramik Special’ buses to ensure that no migrant was seen walking on the road.
