Why is West Bengal govt not giving financial aid to migrants, asks BJP

Hitting out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the BJP on Wednesday questioned why her government was not providing financial aid to the migrant workers from its own coffers.

The saffron party's criticism comes close on the heels of Banerjee's appeal to the Centre to give one-time assistance of Rs 10,000 each to migrant workers amid the COVID-19 crisis. She said financial aid should also be provided to those engaged in unorganised sector to help them cope with the ongoing economic crisis arising out of the lockdown.

Talking to reporters here, BJP nationl general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya asked, "Why is the Banerjee government not giving financial help to migrant labourers of West Bengal? She is in power in that state and not sitting in the opposition. Why isn't her government providing help from its coffers?"

The former Madhya Pradesh minister, who is BJP's in-charge for West Bengal, alleged that Banerjee was the only CM in India, who was acting in an "irresponsible" away over the plight of workers from her own state.

"She does not care for them," he said. He claimed that around 20,000 workers from West Bengal, who were stranded in MP due to coronavirus-induced lockdown, wanted to return home. "For this, MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan wrote a letter to Banerjee seeking her permission to send the migrant labourers back to their home state by trains.

However, the WB government did not give permission," he claimed. The BJP leader said that due to the non-cooperation of the Banerjee dispensation, the MP government had to foot the railway ticket fares of the migrants workers of WB, who were ferried to their home state by three trains. Vijayvargiya also claimed that the workers en route to West Bengal shouted slogans against Banerjee and in praise of Chouhan.