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‘Have 7-stage plan to bring back migrants’: Trinamool on Amit Shah’s letter
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and TMC youth wing chief Abhishek Banerjee tweeted that Shah should apologise if he fails to substantiate the charges in his letter with facts.
West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Saturday rubbished Union home minister Amit Shah’s allegations that the state isn’t helping the Centre in bringing back migrant workers and accused him of spreading lies and playing politics amid an epidemic.
“Amit Shah’s letter is full of outright lies. Two trains have already reached and eight more are expected to reach West Bengal in the coming three days. Overall, 80,000 people have been brought back using various means of transport,” said TMC national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien.
“Amit Shah just woke up from his 40-day sleep but when one writes a letter still in his sleep, the person gets the facts all wrong,” he said, adding the Union home minister was playing politics on the issue.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and TMC youth wing chief Abhishek Banerjee tweeted that Shah should apologise if he fails to substantiate the charges in his letter with facts.
Shah told Banerjee in a letter that West Bengal was meting out “injustice” to Bengali migrant workers stranded across the country by not allowing “shramik” (worker) trains run by the railways to reach the state.
In his communication, Shah also pointed out the Centre has facilitated more than 200,000 migrant workers to reach home and that workers from West Bengal are eager to return.
O’Brien presented a document showing two trains each from Punjab and Tamil Nadu and three from Karnataka are in the draft schedule of special trains as of May 8, and they will reach seven districts of West Bengal with 12,714 passengers between May 10 and 12. Another train is scheduled to arrive in Malda district on May 10 with 1,721 passengers from Telangana.
“We have a seven-stage plan to bring back migrants. We are doing it in a staggered manner. We did not announce a lockdown without an iota of planning. We don’t want to bring back the migrant workers without a proper plan as we are considering all possible implications to find the best way to do it,” O’Brien said.
The opposition Congress, however, contended the West Bengal government gave the green light to the eight trains only after receiving Shah’s letter.
“The chief minister has given permission to eight more trains after Shah wrote to the state,” said Congress’ leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is the MP from Berhampore in West Bengal.
Chowdhury earlier said he had spoken with Shah and railway minister Piyush Goyal to ensure the safe return of migrant workers but his efforts hit a roadblock due to West Bengal’s lack of interest.
O’Brien rubbished Chowdhury’s charge and said, “Our government gave permission to these trains before Shah’s letter, as is evident from the date in the document I presented.”
Shah’s letter to the West Bengal chief minister stated, “Migrants from West Bengal are also eager to reach home. Central govt is facilitating but we are not getting expected support from W.B. State Government, which is not allowing the trains to reach W.B. This is injustice with W.B. migrant labourers. This will create further hardship for them.”
