Staff Reporter / New Delhi
Following direction from Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Party treasurer and senior leader Ahmed Patel has asked Pradesh Congress Committees to mobilise all possible local resources to help migrants purchase tickets to get back home.
He also told them to contact AICC if any further assistance is required.
“As directed by Congress President,in my capacity as Treasuer(AICC) I request Pradesh Congress Committees to mobilise all possible local resources to help migrants purchase tickets to get back home Let us make this into a ppl’s movement, pls contact AICC if you require assistance”, patel said in a tweet.
Amid the row over Centre asking migrant labourers to pay fares for their return home, Congress party last evening announced to bear the cost of their travel.
Congress to bear travel cost of migrants, slams Modi govt
The party’s interim president, Sonia Gandhi, slammed the Modi government over the issue and said that when the government fails, the opposition needs to step in. She announced that Congress would foot the bill for the travel of the migrants. Watch the full video for all the details.
In a statement, Sonia Gandhi described the situation as a “tragedy with a massive human cost” and added that because of the Centre’s four-hour notice of the lockdown necessitated due to the coronavirus, workers and migrant labourers were denied the opportunity to return to their homes.
“Post the partition of 1947, this is the first time India witnessed a tragedy with such a massive human cost as thousands of migrant workers and labourers were forced to walk home several hundred kilometres on foot- without food, without medicines, without money, without transportation, without anything except for the desire to return to their families and loved ones.”
She said that the Congress party had repeatedly asked for the provision of safe and free rail travel for migrant workers and labourers to their home-towns, but their demands had been ignored by the central government and rail ministry.