Yogi Government To Send 12,000 Buses To Bring Back Migrants From States

UP, Coronavirus: Last week, 24 migrant workers were killed when a trailer rammed a stationary truck

The Uttar Pradesh government will send 12,000 buses to ferry stranded migrants to their states. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked state governments to provide lists of the migrants who need rides home, sources said.

District magistrates will be provided 200 buses each to arrange for their travel. This will add up to 15,000 additional buses in 75 districts.

The state government has ordered district authorities to provide food and water as soon as they enter Uttar Pradesh.

It has to be ensured that the migrants don't travel on foot or by motorcycles, three-wheelers or trucks. Their transportation via special trains and buses will have to be arranged.

So far, the Uttar Pradesh government has booked 590 shramik special trains, sources say.

Yogi Adityanath has also agreed to Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's request to run 1,000 buses for migrant workers. The UP government wrote to the Congress leader's office asking for details of the buses, their numbers and drivers' names.

Priyanka Gandhi, a Congress general secretary, had appealed to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on May 16 in a video message on the same day Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman attacked her brother Rahul Gandhi for what she called "dramabaazi" after he interacted with migrants resting under a flyover in Delhi.

Thousands of migrants - who have been stranded for weeks in several parts of the country without jobs and money because of the coronavirus lockdown- are on the road to get to their home states. Despite special trains and buses arranged by the centre and states, thousands are moving on foot and cycles, or by hitching rides on small commercial vehicles and trucks.

Scores of migrants have died in the last few weeks because of exhaustion, or in road and train accidents.

Last week, 24 migrant workers were killed when a trailer rammed a stationary truck - both had migrants -- on a highway near Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh.