JOIN USOwaisi demands relief for migrant labourers; transport facility after lockdown to go to their homes
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has demanded that the NDA government provide relief to migrant labourers who are badly affected during the lockdown and wanted state governments to make arrangements for them to go to their native places after it ends.
He also demanded that the NDA government spell out its plan over the view that many jobs would be lost post lockdown.
"The first thing after lockdown comes to an end should be, it is the responsibility of every state government to make arrangement for those migrant labourers who want to go to their village, town.
They are anxious," he said on Thursday night, in an online address on the occasion of Ramzan.
He alleged that the lockdown was announced in an unplanned manner without providing relief to migrant labourers from states, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand.
Such migrant labourers are suffering a lot now, he said.
He claimed 77 million foodgrains was present in the godowns of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and wanted rice to be distributed among the poor migrant labourers.
Citing his information that an official in Banaras issued an order that workers from Telangana who are working in the city are being sent back, he wanted to know why migrant labourers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal working in Hyderabad cannot be sent to their villages.
"..what is this matter that you can send from Banaras but we cannot send from Telangana, They are restless," he said.
Such labourers want to go to their villages, he added.
He appealed to the Prime Minister to stall the 'Central Vista' project whose cost is put at Rs 30,000 crore and instead use that money to provide relief to the poor.
If the fund given to MPs is stopped, which was a good move, why cannot the Central Vista project be stopped, Owaisi asked.
He advised Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao to keep cinema halls closed after the lockdown in the state comes to an end on May 7 and also all places of worship, if he felt that the virus may spread with people coming out, for a few weeks or whatever.
But, some economic activity should resume after the lockdown, he said.
He also alleged that hatred is being spread against Muslims in the country. Owaisi said the Prime Minister was right when he said the virus does not have any religion but it was a Union Minister who said Tablighi Jamaat is Talibani. Condemning the killing of two seers and their driver at Palghar in Maharashtra, he alleged that a BJP spokesperson had blamed Muslims. However, there was no Muslim in the list of accused released by the Maharashtra government, he said. The AIMIM leader said if action was taken in cases of lynching of Akhlaq, Pehlu Khan and others Palghar would not have happened. Owaisi appealed to Muslims to offer prayers at home in the holy month of Ramzan during the lockdown.