Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma on Wednesday accused the Congress of playing politics at a time of intense crisis, saying this has never been done before by a major political party.
"There are no buses of the Congress party. These buses belong to the Rajasthan government. When the list of buses submitted by the Congress was analysed, it was found that around 460 vehicles are fake. Doing politics in times of such an intense crisis was never ever done by a major political party before," he told reporters here.
The deputy CM claimed nearly 300 vehicles mentioned in the list were unfit to ply on roads.
"First they gave a list, then in the list there were buses of a state government, and of those, around 460 were found to be fake. Around 297 buses are virtually junk and unfit to ply on roads, he said.
"Should we ply the unfit buses and put the lives of the migrant labourers at risk? There are 98 three-wheelers, cars and ambulances in the list. Around 68 vehicles in the list do not have proper papers," Sharma added.
He also asked how the resources of a state government could be utilised by a political party.
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"Can any political party use the buses of the Rajasthan State Roadways Transport Corporation as its own? How can the resources of a state government be utilised by a political party? On what basis are these buses being run," the dy CM asked.
"Here, I want to ask them why Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot did not feel sad when our children were crying in Kota (the coaching hub) as they were not getting food, water and treatment? Where had his buses gone then," Sharma said.
At that time, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath issued orders to run over 600 buses to bring back the students to UP and send them to their homes, and Gehlot was compelled to praise the UP CM, Sharma said.
He said the action of the Congress was a political stunt aimed at deriving some mileage.
"If it (Congress) wants to help the migrant labourers of UP in other states, then they should send buses to Rajasthan, Punjab and Maharashtra, as people are being exploited. Why did it not send buses to Punjab and Maharashtra," he asked.
The deputy chief minister said around 1,000 trains were made available to UP at the request of the chief minister, and more than 10 lakh migrant labourers have been brought back to the state by trains. Around 6.50 lakh migrants came in buses, he said, adding that over 27,000 buses had been pressed into action by the state government.
"The Congress has duped the migrant labourers and kept the UP government in the dark. It should tender an apology for providing a wrong list of buses and wasting the time of the government. They also conspired to put the lives of the migrant labourers at risk and hence, tender an apology to the labourers. Are these Transport Department buses the private property of the Congress party? The resources of a state government cannot be used for a political party," Sharma said.