No end to war of words, but UP allows Congress to run 1,000 buses for migrants

Lucknow: After trading barbs for two days, the Uttar Pradesh government on Monday accepted Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s request to allow 1,000 buses in her party's possession to run from borders of Noida and Ghaziabad, even as thousands of workers thronged to Ghaziabad's Ramlila Maidan to register themselves with the UP government to go back to their native state.

The acceptance letter that asked for Gandhi Vadra to furnish details of buses and drivers or conductors, signed by the additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Awasthi, was made public just an hour after the Twitter handle of chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s Office put some questions to the Congress party.

It said the workers wanted to ask some questions from Congress party that was “falsely projecting” itself to be saviour of migrants, prodding Gandhi Vadra to take responsibility for the Auraiya incident that killed 24 workers in a truck, as the trucks came from Congress-ruled states of Punjab and Rajasthan.

“When you had 1,000 buses, then why were Maharashtra and Rajasthan sending packed buses to UP, Bihar and Jharkhand?” the handle said. “We had asked for a time when we could meet the chief secretary both on Saturday and Sunday, but we could not meet him,” UP Congress MLA Aradhana Mishra told ET.

“On Sunday, there were 700 buses at the UP-Rajasthan border but those were not use of. They have asked for information regarding the buses and drivers and we are compiling it.”