No financial package, govt has abandoned migrants: Congress

NEW DELHI: Opposition parties had their way on Friday when the Centre conceded their demand and tweaked the home ministry’s order issued two days earlier to allow train services to transport stranded migrant workers home.

The development came after opposition parties led by the Congress termed the original order of allowing bus service for the purpose, and putting the onus on the states for screening of the workers, a “Tughlaqi farmaan (whimsical order)” and accused the Centre of “abandoning” the migrants without providing them with any financial package.

“The April 29 order regarding movement of migrants by home ministry is arbitrary and is a Tughlaqi farmaan. After 40 days of lockdown the order is like ‘khoda pahad nikli chuhiya (dug out a mountain only to find a small mouse)’,” said Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi. “There are guidelines for the states but what will the Centre do for this migrant population, it says nothing. It is International Labour Day today but looks like Centre has washed its hands of on the welfare of these labourers.”


Pointing out that there are an estimated 4.3 million migrant workers, Singhvi said there are 2.5 million Bihari migrants in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu alone. “Rajasthan says they have some 2.5 lakh migrant labourers, Kerala has 4 lakh, Punjab 4 lakh, Odisha 7 lakh, Assam has 1.5 lakh migrant labourers stuck in different parts of the country,” Singhvi said.