E-Paper
‘Corona attack on Bihar’: JD(U) leader slams migrant workers’ exodus
Migrant workers rushing back home have raised fears in Bihar of the higher transmission of coronavirus.
The sudden exodus of migrant labourers, especially from Delhi after the announcement of the 21-day lockdown sparked a blame game among politicians in Bihar which faces a serious challenge of stopping a potential community transmission of coronavirus
While some attribute the sudden rush to lack of any source of sustenance for a huge population of daily-wage labourers, others blame it on rumour mongering by vested interests while there are still others view it as part of a “conspiracy” to attack Bihar in this hour of crisis.
“This is a kind of coronavirus attack on Bihar. When the Prime Minister has been consistently appealing to the people to stay where they are, it was the responsibility of the state governments concerned to make necessary arrangements for them at camps or whatever they deemed fit to anyhow prevent movement, as even two infected persons could unleash serious trouble for thousands,” said Janata Dal (United) national spokesman KC Tyagi.
Follow coronavirus live updates here.
On Saturday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had expressed concern about the danger of community transmission at a time when social distancing is the only option to deal with coronavirus. The Bihar government has decided to set up camps in bordering areas to accommodate home-bound migrants for the isolation period.
Nitish kumar who is also the JD (U) president said the flow of migrants at this critical time would defeat the very purpose of lockdown,
Tyagi said it was unfortunate that despite lockdown and curfew in Delhi, thousands of people were allowed to assemble at Anand Vihar bus station, which should not have been allowed at the first place.
“How did they manage to assemble? Why were arrangements not made? The same applies to other states like Haryana, Maharashttra, Gujarat and UP from where trainloads of migrant labourers, left in the lurch, rushed back home. This raises a question mark on human values,” he added.
The Aam Admi Party (AAP), on the other hand, blamed it on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
“It was Yogiji’s announcement that buses would be made available, which created the commotion. We have been requesting migrants with folded that all arrangements would be made for them. The wife of Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh is herself running a kitchen for over 4000 migrants,” said Ajit Tyagi, OSD of Sanjay Singh who is presently under quarantine.
Bihar AAP president Sushil Singh also blamed Adityanath “for announcing on March 26 that buses would be made available for stranded migrants on humanitarian ground and their health condition would also be examined”.
Bihar BJP president Dr Sanjay Jaiswal launched a scathing attack on Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in a Facebook post, comparing him with a ‘demon’. “Yogiji tried to ensure as a human gesture that migrants stranded on road reached their homes in the absence of any facility in Delhi. In any case, they were on road in thousands. Rumours were spreads that 1000 buses would run from Anand Vihar to Uttar Pradesh and AAP workers fanned it in jhuggi-jhopdis,” he added.
Jaiswal said the conspiracy had been hatched just to escape from the responsibility of feeding migrants in this critical situation when any gathering could prove disastrous. “While most people are following the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, some vested interests are still trying to fish in troubled waters. God will never spare them for this act against humanity,” he said.
RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha said that the lockdown simply did not factor in the concerns of the poor.
“As the images of migrant workers on roads reveal, this lockdown did not take into consideration the concerns and priorities of the poor. The blame game on the chilling images only underline that our policies and priorities are dictated by the elite, which abhors the worldview on subalterns,” he said.
