JOIN USUP's move to transport students from Kota attracts flak
The Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government sending buses to transport stranded students from Rajasthan during lockdown has attracted criticism with Opposition leaders on Saturday questioning why such efforts are not being taken to help migrant workers.
BSP chief Mayawati said she welcomed the move to bring back students stranded in Rajasthan's Kota where they had gone for entrance coaching but wanted the government also to show some concern for migrant workers, who are living in pitiable circumstances across the country.
"UP government sent a number of buses to Kota to transport around 7,500 youth studying in coaching centres there. This is a welcome move. BSP appreciates it. But the government is also urged to show such concern to the millions of poor migrant labourers families who are still being forced to live hellish lives away from their homes," she tweeted.
CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said the Centre should take initiative to bring back migrant labourers to their villages.
"If BJP governments can send luxury buses to get rich pilgrims from Uttarakhand and elsewhere back to Gujarat and UP sends 100 buses for 7,500 students of rich families from Rajasthan, Centre must arrange for stranded starving workers. Not doing so is criminal. 252 buses for free for the rich. Nothing except lathis for starving migrant workers - another brutal reminder of how BJP has all along benefitted rich cronies at the expense of the many who need essentials. They bailed out rich borrowers by Rs 7.76 lakh crores - Rs 0 for the poor," he said in tweets.
Yechury had earlier cited the efforts to airlift Indians stranded in foreign countries and similarly, the Centre should take steps to run special trains to transport migrant workers stranded migrant labourers in cities to their villages across India.
On Friday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, a BJP ally, has criticised the UP move saying the way special buses are being ferried to bring students from Kota was an "injustice with the principles of lockdown". Bihar government has already written to the Ministry of Home Affairs, saying it will "open a Pandora's box" as if students are allowed, "on what grounds can you stop migrant labourers who are also stuck".
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had tweeted, "as the UP govt called back students of UP living in Kota, it can also be done for students from other states. Students in Kota can be sent to their home states on the consent of the concerned state govt so that these young boys and girls do not panic or feel depressed."
In early April, around 1,800 people from Gujarat, who were stranded in Uttarakhand, were brought back to Ahmedabad in 28 buses.