'They aren't cooperating': Nawab Malik slams UP, Karnataka's approach on migrant workers

Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik on Wednesday accused the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka governments of adopting an uncooperative approach in taking back migrant workers hailing from these two states.

He also accused the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh of not wanting to take back the migrant workers from the northern state who are stranded in parts of Maharashtra due to the coronavirus-enforced lockdown. Malik, however, said that such a problem has not arisen with other states like Bihar, Rajasthan and another BJP-ruled state, Madhya Pradesh.

'They do not want to take back the migrant workers'

"Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka are two states whose approach has been such that they do not want to take back the migrant workers (stuck in Maharashtra). They are creating new hurdles. There are no such problems in case of other states like Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal though. The process (of sending back migrants) has been smooth in the case of these states," Malik said.

The NCP leader alleged that the Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka governments either don't want the people hailing from their states to return or are deliberately creating hurdles so that out of job workers do not go back in big numbers. "The Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka government should understand one thing. The migrant workers are not ready mentally to stay back in Maharashtra and want to return to their native states," Malik said.

The NCP minister said the Maharashtra government has been sending the applications received from migrant workers to the nodal officers of their respective native districts. "Once the nodal officers (of the native districts) concerned approve the applications, the workers are sent back either by trains or private vehicles following their medical tests," Malik added.

Shiv Sena fires barb at UP CM Yogi

Earlier on Wednesday, in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana, Shiv Sena had also alleged that CM Yogi and other UP leaders want the migrant labourers from Maharashtra and Gujarat in their states only during the elections but at the time of crisis, they do not want to accept them back. 

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In its editorial, Sena, which is in power in Maharashtra claimed that there are around 30-35 lakh migrant workers in the state, out of which at least 25 lakhs are stranded in Mumbai. The editorial said that even in Surat, these workers are getting desperate to return to their homeland but they are helpless.

"The Yogi government has a different set of rules for the rich and the poor. They sent buses to bring back students from Kota and they were accepted without being tested for Covid-19 just because they are the children of rich people? whereas the UP Government refuses to accept these labourers in the state if they are not tested," the editorial said. Sena's attack came a day after Yogi Adityanath slammed the Opposition accusing them of attempting to misuse migrant workers' situation for their 'narrow political' gains. 

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(With PTI inputs)