Lucknow: Soon after giving nod to the Congress proposal to run 1,000 buses to ferry migrant workers stuck at its sealed borders, the Yogi Adityanath-led government added a series of riders from Monday night till Tuesday morning, virtually making it near impossible to execute its own approval to start those vehicles.
Besides, the UP government said that the list of vehicles provided by the Congress contained registration numbers of cars, two-wheelers, ambulances and even lorries, escalating the political slugfest between the BJP and the Congress. Result: Not a single bus moved on day1 despite permissions, availability of buses and the requisite documents of staff.
As buses remained parked on roads at Noida and Ghaziabad and Agra, labourers remained stranded. A few managed to cross the border and continued to walk towards their destination, hoping to beat all odds.
Meanwhile, the road transport office registered a first information report (FIR) against Congress leaders, UP chief Ajay Kumar Lallu and Sandeep Singh who is the personal secretary of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Lucknow, for allegedly providing wrong information and fraud.
Lallu and a few other Congress leaders were detained by police in Agra on Tuesday evening when they tried to protest against police officials who refused to allow the buses to proceed towards Noida and Ghaziabad, citing lack of green signal by the government.
The fiasco and the ensuing delay prompted Vadra to dash off a letter to the government. “These buses have been stranded at Agra border for the past three hours; but the Agra administration is not allowing us to enter the city.
I want to appeal to you once again that this is the time to display sensitivity. Please grant us permission so that we can proceed.” "UP's hapless migrants are worried. We can together overcome this challenge. We request you to grant permission, so that our buses can reach Noida and Ghaziabad via Agra," she further said in the latter.
Nevertheless, several UP ministers who had been missing from the scene since the lockdown, came forward on Tuesday to target the Congress. “The initial probe has found that many vehicles are two-wheelers, autos and goods carriers. It is unfortunate.
Sonia Gandhi should answer why they are committing this fraud,” Minister Sidharth Nath Singh said. Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya accused the Congress through a tweet in Hindi, “The Congress has got trapped in its own trap of deceit.
