After Gehlot, Mayawati urges Centre to facilitate travel for migrants

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati requested the Centre on Wednesday (April 22) to send home migrant labourers stranded in various parts of the country due to the coronavirus-forced lockdown by making arrangements on the lines of the one made for Kota student.

A couple of states have brought back students preparing for various competitive examinations in the coaching hub of Kota in Rajasthan in buses arranged especially for them.

In a tweet, Mayawati said, “Lakhs of poor people and migrant labourers stranded mostly in states such as Maharashtra, Delhi and Haryana are facing unemployment and starvation due to the nationwide lockdown. They are not able to get a single meal properly and want to return home.”

2. ऐसे में केन्द्र सरकार से आग्रह है कि वह उनकी इस मांँग पर सहानुभूतिपूर्वक विचार करके तथा लाॅकडाउन के नियमों का भी सही से पालन करते हुए उन्हें विशेष ट्रेनों व बसों आदि से उनके घरों तक भेजने की व्यवस्था कराये जैसाकि कोटा से छात्रों को भेजने हेतु किया गया है।

— Mayawati (@Mayawati) April 22, 2020

“Under such circumstances, the centre is requested to look into their demand sympathetically and make arrangements for special trains and buses to send them home while properly adhering to lockdown norms, as was done for the Kota students,” she said.

Related news: Facilitate migrants to go home as you did for foreigners: Gehlot to PM

The BSP chief’s request comes a day after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that his state has a problem way different from others.

“A large number of Rajasthanis, including migrant workers, shopkeepers, private employees, small businessmen are stuck in Assam, North East, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra and other states. They are feeling frustrated and desperately want to go back to their homes and meet their family members,” he told Hindustan Times.

Even as several states have already contacted the Rajasthan government for facilitating travel arrangements for students stranded in the state to be sent back to their natives, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar termed the move “injustice to the lockdown”, saying it went against the principle behind enforcing the lockdown.

Related news: Injustice to lockdown: Bihar CM on buses sent to help stranded students

“The way special buses are being sent to ferry students from Kota, it is injustice with the principle of the lockdown,” Kumar told NDTV.

Bihar chief minister’s reaction came after the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday (April 17) decided to send 250 buses to bring back 7,000 students stuck in Kota, motivating other states too to do the same.

(With inputs from agencies)