Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday urged the Uttar Pradesh government to allow the buses provided by her party to transport migrant workers to their homes in the State and said that the BJP can use its flags and stickers on the buses if they want.
"At 4 p.m., 24 hours will be completed since the buses were made available. If you want to use it, do it. Give us permission. If you want to use BJP party flags and stickers on buses then do it. If you want to say that these buses were made available by you, then do it by all means. But let the buses run," Priyanka said in an online address here.
Stating that this is not the time for politics, she said that she doesn't want to question the Uttar Pradesh government over the bus row and added that her party can provide a new list of buses to transport migrant workers if needed.
This comes a day after UP Cabinet Minister Sidharth Nath Singh said that the list of buses given by the Congress party to ferry migrant workers to their homes consists of many two-wheelers, autos, and goods carriers.
"I do not want to raise a question over the State government. If the previous list provided by us consists of wrong registration numbers, we can provide a new list," Priyanka said.
She said the Congress party had written to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath offering to run 1,000 buses from Delhi-UP border to ferry migrant workers stranded there amid the lockdown back to their homes in the State.
"On May 17, there were 500 buses in Ghaziabad ready to ferry these migrant workers. If these buses were allowed to ply, around 36,000 people would've been home by yesterday, and the same number of people today as well," Priyanka said.
She said that migrant workers, who are the backbone of the country, are struggling to get back to their homes amid the lockdown induced to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Priyanka said that the Congress had earlier suggested to use UP Roadways buses to ferry migrant labourers back to their homes in the State.
( With inputs from ANI )