UP govt claims Congress sent autorickshaw, two-wheeler numbers in list of buses for migrant workers

Lucknow, May 19: The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday accused the Congress and said the list of 1,000 buses offered by the party to ferry migrant workers contained registration numbers of two-wheelers and cars.

However, the Congress, challenged the Uttar Pradesh government to conduct a "physical verification" of the buses it has brought to the state's border to take stranded workers home.

State Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya accused the party of coming up with a scam.

"The Congress has got trapped in its own net of deceit," he tweeted in Hindi. The state government's claim reignited the row over the offer made on May 16 by Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to provide 1,000 buses for migrant workers.

Initially, the Congress claimed that the state's BJP government was ignoring the offer with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath even refusing to give an appointment to a party delegation seeking a meeting.

Even while accusing the Congress of playing politics over the plight of workers heading home after the coronavirus lockdown, the Uttar Pradesh government on Monday formally accepted the offer. It asked the Congress to submit a list of the buses, and its drivers and conductors.

But, that was not all. In an email received by Priyanka Gandhi's private secretary at 11.40 pm on Monday, the Uttar Pradesh government asked the Opposition party to send the buses to Lucknow by 10 am on Tuesday, according to the Congress.

The aide wrote back to the state government saying that sending empty buses to Lucknow was "inhuman" and the "product of an anti-poor mindset" when thousands of workers are gathered at the state borders.