Shiv Sena targets Yogi Adityanath, Nitish Kumar over migrants workers’ issue, spares Mamata Banerjee govt

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's party Shiv Sena has yet again targeted Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar for not doing enough to bring migrant workers stranded in the state back home.

In an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana, it said that the state governments of UP and Bihar are not doing enough to resolve the migrant workers’ crisis. ''It has now become a vote bank issue for the parties ruling these states. We don’t want to do politics over the issue,'' the party said.

Comparing the migrant workers’ issue with the lynching of three men, including two seers in Maharashtra recently, the Sena editorial said that it ''as inhuman and condemnable like the Palghar mob lynching incident.''

Targeting the UP and Bihar governments, the Sena editorial asked the migrant workers stranded in Maharashtra to leave the state as early as possible and the two states to take immediate steps for bringing them back.

Attacking the UP govt, the Saamana editorial said that the Yogi Adityanath government has taken a U-turn over the issue even after the Centre has allowed the states to run trains to help stranded migrant workers.

Hitting out at Yogi Adityanath for slamming the Maharashtra government for the Palghar lynching incident, Shiv Sena said that the lynching incident in Palghar was horrifying but the state government took swift action and the accused were arrested.

The party said it feared that some people in Maharashtra would instigate the migrant labourers for their petty political gains.

The Shiv Sena had earlier said that it is the Centre’s responsibility to make arrangements for sending migrant labourers to their native places in the wake of the lockdown enforced to contain the spread of coronavirus. Several migrant labourers have been residing in the coronavirus hotspots of Mumbai’s Dharavi slum area, it noted.

If these people continue to flock the streets, it is not safe for their health, the Marathi publication said, adding that the Centre cannot shrug off its responsibility.

The Saamana editorial stated that the kind of promptness shown by the UP and Bihar for the return of students from Rajasthan’s Kota, the same promptness should also be shown in the case of migrant labourers.

Shiv Sena said that the Maharashtra government has been taking good care of each and every migrant labourer in Mumbai and elsewhere, but it is the sole responsibility of the UP and Bihar governments to take them back.

However, the Sena editorial spared Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal where thousands of migrant workers from other states are stranded due to lockdown and facing problem in going back home.