Business lobby not allowing migrants to go home: Ahmed Patel

May 6, 2020
New Delhi: Congress treasurer Ahmed Patel has alleged that business lobbies are ensuring that state governments don’t permit migrants to go home after the Karnataka government cancelled the special trains for them. The Congress leader said that it is “feudal” and a violation of the fundamental rights.

Ahmed Patel tweeted “First Karnataka and now Gujarat,some business lobbies are ensuring state govt doesn’t permit migrants to return to their families.”

The Congress leader said that this is a violation of their fundamental rights.

“To hold them against their will is a violation of human and fundamental rights Its a feudal mindset. Do migrants not get a choice because they are poor?” said Patel.

The Karnataka government has cancelled the trains for the migrants and has written to the Railways not to operationalise these trains. The state wants to revive the economy and lift the lockdown partially and the workforce is needed for this.

As per the easing of guidelines under the extended lockdown since Monday till May 17, the state government allowed manufacturing and services to function, keeping social distancing, wearing of masks and sanitization mandatory.

The decision reportedly came after the builders association told the Chief Minister that they had paid the migrant workers and given them facilities to resume construction activities.

The Chief Minister asked R. Ashok and Suresh Kumar — both Ministers — to convince the migrant workers to stay back as construction and other economic activities had resumed.

Around 10,000 migrant workers left Bengaluru in eight special trains since Sunday for their states, while hundreds of local migrants were ferried in the state-run buses to their native places since Saturday.IANS