Yogi kicks up yet another controversy over migrant workers

After announcing that the states wanting to hire the migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh would henceforth require the permission of the government, chief minister Yogi Adityanath triggered yet another controversy by his remarks that more than half of the workers returning to UP were 'infected'.

The remarks immediately invited flak from the opposition leaders, who asked the chief minister to either clarify or ''reveal the truth'' about the actual number of Coronavirus positive patients in the state.

In a video, uploaded on the official Twitter handle of the UP Congress on Monday, Adityanath could be heard saying that 75 percent of the returning migrant workers from Mumbai were 'infected'.

''Fifty percent of migrant workers returning from Delhi and 25 to 30 percent migrant workers returning from other states in the country are infected....it is a huge challenge for us,'' the chief minister is heard saying in the video.

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra attacked Adityanath on the remarks and sought immediate release of the actual figures regarding COVID-19 patients in the state.

''This figure is terrifying....if it is so then why less testing is being done in UP,'' Priyanka said in a tweet.

Akhilesh also took potshots at Adityanath and asked him to explain the figures. ''The chief minister should explain his divine political mathematics,'' he tweeted on Tuesday.

According to the UP officials, over 25 lakh migrant workers had so far returned to UP from different parts of the country. Official sources said that so far around 55,000 migrant workers had been tested and 1,663 had been found to be coronavirus positive.

Till Monday (May 25) the state's tally of coronavirus positive cases stood at 6,497.

The chief minister had on Sunday said that other states wanting to hire the migrant workers from UP would henceforth need the permission of the UP government.