Maha govt was ready to send back migrant workers: Cong leader

Senior Congress leader Mohammed

Arif Naseem Khan on Wednesday claimed the Maharashtra government was ready to send migrant workers back to their native states in view of the lockdown, but respective chief ministers were not ready to accept them.

Khan's statement came in the backdrop of a protest by migrant workers in Bandra on Tuesday, demanding that they be sent back to their native places in view of the coronavirus- enforced lockdown which has rendered them jobless. Most of them were from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

In a statement, Khan said he had discussed the issue of migrant workers in Mumbai and neighbouring areas with senior ministers in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, of which the Congress is a constituent.

 

"All ministers with whom I discussed the problems of migrant workers told me that the Maharashtra government was ready to send them back (to their respective states).

"But the chief ministers of the states the migrant workers belong to were not ready to take them back," the former state minister claimed.

Due to the lockdown, which has been now extended till May 3, poor labourers from other states have lost their jobs and run out of money and food.

The state government, which has been arranging food and shelter for them, will find it difficult to do the same for another fortnight, he said.

He said the Centre should intervene and find a solution to the problem of these migrants who number around 20 lakh in the MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan Region)area.

Khan said Maharashtra ministers Aaditya Thackeray and Ashok Chavanhad earlier also spoken about sending the migrant labourers back to their states.