A Rajasthan minister on Sunday claimed that his state government had kept 500 private buses ready to ferry migrant workers to Uttar Pradesh but they were not allowed to enter by the Yogi Adityanath government.
Vishvendra Singh, Minister for Tourism and Devasthan, said the buses were stopped at Bahej village in Bharatpur’s Deeg area in Rajasthan close to the border between the two states.
After making the buses wait for almost the entire day, they were asked to return to Rajasthan, said Singh. Bahej village falls under the minister’s assembly constituency.
“We had been waiting for permission from the UP government to enter cross the border for nearly seven hours,” Mr Singh alleged.
“It is really quite sad that the UP government is not accepting and the buses are still sitting at the border. 10.20pm. My SDM has been busy arranging for meals for the bus drivers and conducters. Was an emotional moment for me to see her begging the UP officials to allow buses,” he said in a tweet later.
Around 1,000 private buses to facilitate the movement of migrants have been arranged on the directives of Uttar Pradesh Congress in-charge and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as she was moved by their plight, Mr Singh said.
The decision was taken purely on humanitarian grounds and there is no question of politcising the issue since neither UP nor Rajasthan are going to polls anytime soon, said Mr Singh.
Moreover, none of the buses had any Congress symbol like a sticker or flag on them, he added.
Priyanka Gandhi had earlier in the day asked Yogi Adityanath to allow the party ferry migrant labourers back home in buses arranged by it and kept ready at the state border.
The minister said, the episode has exposed the inhuman side of the Uttar Pradesh government which in the first place, failed to provide transport to migrant labours wanting to return to the state and thus, forcing them to walks hundreds of miles on foot.
According to Pradeep Mathur, former Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, the state government was informed about the arrival of buses via a WhatsApp message sent to Additional Chief secretary Avanish Awasthi and S K Goel Principal secretary to the chief minister
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