Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar on Saturday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak to chief ministers of states who are not willing to allow migrants to return home. He did not name any state.
“I humbly request our @PMOIndia Shri. Narendra Modi ji to intervene in this matter by talking to the CMs of the respective states who are not allowing these people to come back home,” Pawar said in a tweet.
He did not name any state but Bengal and Union home minister Amit Shah have had a war of words over transportation of migrant workers. Shah had said the Centre was not receiving “expected support” from her government in helping migrant workers reach home. The ruling Trinamool Congress in Bengal hit back at Shah and accused him of misleading people “with lies”.
The transportation of migrant workers has become a touchy issue. In Maharashtra’s Aurangabad, 16 migrant workers were run over by a goods train on Friday morning as they slept on the tracks after a long journey on foot in a desperate attempt to find transport to go back to their hometowns hundreds of kilometres away in Madhya Pradesh.
In another tweet, Pawar said Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and Railways minister Piyush Goyal have assured him that arrangements are in place for sending migrant workers back to their homes.
{{/usCountry}}In another tweet, Pawar said Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and Railways minister Piyush Goyal have assured him that arrangements are in place for sending migrant workers back to their homes.
{{/usCountry}}“The CM of Maharashtra has assured me of arrangements for the transportation of these workers wanting to go back to their home states. State Transport buses will be used for their travel. The Union Railway Minister has also assured of arrangements of travel by trains for the same,” Pawar said in another tweet.
The NCP chief said he had spoken to Goyal about the migrant workers.
“Had a telephonic conversation with Shri @OfficeofUT - Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Shri @PiyushGoyal - the Union Railway Minister regarding the issue of migrant workers,” he tweeted.