Yogi govt flip-flops over 1000 buses for migrants: Congress sharpens attack on it for sowing confusion

An hour after the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh alleged that the list of buses submitted to the state government by the Congress for carrying migrant workers include registration numbers of cars, scooters, and autos, UP Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu hit back at the BJP government saying that he can make the details of the 1000 buses public.

“The UP government is trying to confuse people; they are intentionally making up fake numbers to do politics. We have provided the registration numbers of buses; we can make it public, you can verify it,” said Lallu while reacting to the allegations levelled by UP minister and spokesperson Siddharth Nath Singh.

Earlier in the day, Singh told the media that the Congress deserved condemnation for this kind of “fraud and forgery”.

“It is unforgivable that a political party should resort to this kind of petty politics in the name of migrant workers. The Congress owes an apology to the nation,” Singh was reported as saying by the media.

He further said that it was because of this that the Uttar Pradesh government had sought details of the vehicles when the Congress sought permission to provide buses to carry the migrants.

However, it is worth noting that buckling under the pressure, the Yogi Adityanath government asked the Congress to deploy 500 buses at Kaushambhi bus station in Ghaziabad and 500 buses at Gautam Buddha Nagar near Expo Mart ground by Tuesday noon to ferry the migrant workers.

The letter to this effect was sent by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Avanish Awasthi to Priyanka Gandhi’s personal secretary, Sandeep Singh.

Awasthi also has shot off a letter, a day before at the midnight on Monday, asking the Congress to bring all the buses to Lucknow by 10 am on Tuesday.

However, it is worth noting that in a sign that it was that buckling under the pressure, the Yogi Adityanath government asked the Congress to deploy 500 buses at Kaushambhi bus station in Ghaziabad and 500 buses at Gautam Buddha Nagar near Expo Mart ground by Tuesday noon to ferry the migrant workers.

A letter to this effect was sent by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Avanish Awasthi to Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi’s personal secretary, Sandeep Singh.

It may be recalled that Awasthi had also shot off a letter a day before on Monday midnight, asking the Congress to bring all the buses to Lucknow by 10 am on Tuesday.

Terming the decision taken by the BJP government as “inhumane and anti-poor,” Sandeep shot back saying that the Congress party will deploy the buses as per the promise.

Ironically, the Yogi government has already granted permission to the Congress party to run 1000 buses for the migrants. Out of these 1000 buses, 500 were parked near Mathura border.

The BJP govt changed the decision at midnight apparently in order to only create hurdles for the Congress party.

The letter sent by the UP government said that directives have been sent to the concerned district magistrates who will check the vehicle fitness, driving licenses of drivers and other documents before deploying them for migrant workers.