‘Back to villages in crowded buses denting lockdown’, says Chidambaram

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday questioned the Centre’s preparedness as he pointed out the migration of hundreds of thousands of workers from the cities to villages during the 21-day lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus disease.

Chidambaram’s tweet came as these migrant workers, stranded in cities without work and money, were seen walking back to their villages in hoards.

“‘Back to villages’ in crowded buses or on foot has significantly dented the lockdown. It is another distressing example of the governments’ unpreparedness,” Chidambaram tweeted.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday sent hundreds of buses to evacuate the migrant workers from the state who have been stranded in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR).

The UP State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) buses continued to ferry them to their destinations from different areas of Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar as the norm of social distancing were broken at the bus terminals.

As crowds packed the buses, the administration later started thermal screening of the passengers at Kaushambi.

“What are the central and state governments doing about the migrant workers who were allowed to leave the cities and towns and who are finding their way back to their villages?” the former finance minister asked.

Before Chidambaram, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet that the countrywide lockdown will “devastate our poor and weak” and sought a compassionate approach to deal with the crisis.

The Congress also criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government on Twitter, alleging it had imposed the lockdown without proper planning and has been unable to control the reverse migration.

“BJP’s lack of planning has rendered tens of thousands of people hungry and homeless. The government should have come out with a targeted plan to help them before implementing nationwide lockdown,” it said.

“Suspended transport, disrupted supply chains, misinformation to the police and active racism, such is the outcome of a #LockdownWithoutPlan,” the party said in another tweet.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the three-week lockdown, he had emphasised the restrictions will help maintain social distancing and cited experts’ who have said it was the only way to deal with the coronavirus crisis across the globe.

“There is no other way to deal with coronavirus and we need to save ourselves. And we have to break the cycle of its infection,” the Prime Minister had said.