Even as politics between the governments of Delhi and Bihar over train fares of migrants heated up, the Delhi Congress on Saturday again wrote to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and gave a list of over 7,299 migrants who wanted to be sent back to their native places.
Addressing the media through videoconference here, Delhi Congress President Chaudhary Anil Kumar said: "I have once again written to Kejriwal and forwarded to him the list of 7,299 migrant labourers, who have sent requests to the party for train tickets for going back to their native states."
He said the party had urged the Delhi government to make proper arrangements for their safe and secure journey. He said the Congress was ready to pay the train fares of these people.
On Monday, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi had announced her party would bear the travel cost of migrants stranded across the country amid the nationwide lockdown.
Kumar said that he had forwarded a list of 2,106 migrants to the Delhi government on Friday.
"I told the Delhi government that if they are not footing expenditure on their train fares, the Delhi Congress was ready to foot the bill."
The Delhi government has sent a Shramik special train to Bihar's Muzaffarpur with 1,200 people on Friday from New Delhi.
AAP Minister Gopal Rai later took to Twitter: "With 1,200 migrant workers a Shramik train leaves from New Delhi for Muzaffarpur."
Earlier in the day, Bihar Minister Sanjay Kumar Jha said that he saw a tweet by a Delhi Minister saying they are paying for the tickets of 1,200 migrants travelling from Delhi to Muzaffarpur.
"I have a letter here sent by their government asking for the reimbursement of money from the Bihar government," he said.
Following Jha's remarks, Rai again took to Twitter: "It is true that the Delhi government wrote a letter to the Bihar government. It is also true that yesterday the Delhi government paid the fares of 1,200 workers to the Railways and sent them to Muzaffarpur. But it is also true that there was no response from the Bihar government."
Commenting on the development, Congress leader Kumar said: "It is shocking that the Kejriwal government, which takes false credit of paying for the train fares of the migrants, has demanded reimbursement from the receiving states."
The Congress leader maintained that there was "no need to indulge in such a charade" by the Delhi government as the Congress had already written to Kejriwal and the Chief Secretary about its readiness to pay for the train fares of the migrants.
( With inputs from IANS )