Govt leaving people to their fate, alleges Congress

Continuing its attack on the central government on the issue of migrant workers, the Congress on Sunday said thousands are left stranded and have been forced to take the long walk home without any assistance and many have been subjected to police atrocities.

Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said, "the Govt policy towards stranded migrant labourers is "Sadak (Road) Pe Maro" instead of "Madad (Help) Karo".

He said the reasons for this panic is "no contingency plan, no financial security offered and no timely buses deployed to help them transit like Air India did for Indians abroad."

The party attacked the Prime Minister on Tali Bajao "clapping" on the day of Janata Curfew. "Three days advance notice given by PM for "tali & thali" ceremony but only 3 hours notice given before locking down 1.2 billion people, especially the labour work force - why?" Shergill asked.

Thousands of workers and labourers - now in a reverse migration mode - are desperate to reach home amidst the COVID-19 scare.

Since the past two days, people are flocking on the UP-Delhi-Haryana border and also on the UP-Bihar border to return to their homes.

With the railway also a part of the lockdown, people in other states, particularly Maharashtra, are climbing on to goods train, oil tankers and even milk tankers in an attempt to reach their destination.

With limited options left for travel, many are walking the distance on foot.

UPSRTC Managing Director Raj Shekhar said, "We have deployed 1,000 buses to bring stranded migrants from the border areas as well as railway stations and bus stations. We are also trying to provide food and water to them."

The total number of positive coronavirus people in India so far, reached up to 979 on Sunday. Of this at least 867 are active coronavirus cases, 86 people have cured and discharged from hospitals while 25 people succumbed from the highly infectious COVID-19 disease said a government release.

There are at least 931 Indian nationals and 48 foreign nationals who have been affected by the disease.