The Congress has said the migrant workers would have been suffering far less had the government heeded its suggestions to ensure food security and transfer Rs 7,500 to their accounts.
Senior Congress politicians have expressed surprise that the Centre did not extend immediate help to the poor or fortify the states, which are fighting the virus from the frontline.
They said the sight of millions walking hundreds of kilometres with the aged and children underline the Centre’s failure to assess the crisis or chalk out a plan to tackle it.
Former finance minister P. Chidambaram highlighted Friday’s ghastly tragedy in Maharashtra, where a train ran over 16 migrants sleeping on the tracks during a long trudge home.
“The Congress was the first to demand that migrant workers who desired to go back to their home states should be facilitated to do so. Central Government dragged its feet for 38 days,” he tweeted.
“Congress was the first to draw attention to the fact that, despite trains and buses, thousands of migrant workers are trekking back home. No one paid heed to our warning.”
Chidambaram added: “The Congress was the first to demand that cash and grain must be given to the poorest 50 per cent of families, which would have covered the migrant workers.
“Governments did not pay heed to our call. Now, governments are shedding crocodile tears for the migrant workers who were killed by a train. The tragedy on our highways and railway tracks is visible every day to all, except the governments.”
Former finance minister P. Chidambaram highlighted Friday’s ghastly tragedy in Maharashtra, where a train ran over 16 migrants sleeping on the tracks during a long trudge home. Telegraph file picture
Congress sources stressed that the migrant crisis hadn’t been a bolt from the blue. The Supreme Court has been hearing a public interest plea for relief to the stranded migrants for over a month, but the Centre has shied away from conceding the gravity of the problem, they said.
As far back as April 1, additional solicitor-general Tushar Mehta had told the apex court that no migrant worker was on the roads and that anyone who had been was taken to the nearest shelter.
Countless reports and videos have appeared since then, revealing the sufferings of people walking hundreds of kilometres in blazing heat or rain, without food or water, swollen feet covered in blisters, often ailing.
A porter from Sadar Bazar in Delhi reached his village in Madhubani, Bihar, with his cart in 14 days. A 12-year-old girl walking to her Chhattisgarh village from Telangana died on the road.
On April 21, Mehta contested in the Supreme Court the petitioner’s allegation that the migrants were without food or money. “Anyone seeking food gets it within an hour,” he said.
The court refused to issue a direction to the Centre to give money and rations to the workers or to the states who were supposed to look after them.
All this while, the Congress has continued to demand immediate assistance for the poor, a position endorsed by economists like Raghuram Rajan and Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee, party sources said.
Haryana Congress chief and Rajya Sabha member Kumari Selja on Saturday said the situation was beyond grave.
“We get hundreds of desperate calls for food every day. Even those who are getting something to eat daily aren’t satisfied living in the camps, as these two pieces of bread don’t address their concerns for their families living in the villages,” she told The Telegraph.
“Almost all of them want to join their families. They have not been able to send money home, and there’s no idea till when the free food will come.”
Selja added: “The trust with the government has broken. Had money been transferred to their account as the Congress and economists have been suggesting, the level of frustration and panic would have come down. The plan should have been communicated from Delhi to the district level before the lockdown. But there was, sadly, no plan. Now they want to go home and are being stopped.
“Are they criminals, bonded labour? They abided by the Prime Minister’s diktat for taali-thali but there was a disconnect on real issues. Nobody heard their cries for help. So the decision to walk home was the last resort.”
Party spokesperson Ajay Maken said: “Even now, every night you can see hundreds of workers walking home. Trains and buses have now been allowed but money is being charged from those who have nothing.
“In Gujarat, the Prime Minister’s home state, BJP leaders are collecting much more than the ticket prices and are then beating up those who complain. Delhi has the highest migrant population and barely one or two trains have left so far. We need more than 100 trains.”
Maken wondered what the way ahead was, highlighting that the government was speaking in different voices.
“Niti Aayog member V.K. Paul says the curve is flattening and by May 16 we will win the battle. AIIMS chief Randeep Guleria says the peak will come in June-July. Joint secretary, health, Luv Agarwal says if we follow the dos and don’ts, we won’t reach the peak at all,” he said.
“Who should we trust? On whose information will the future plans be made by the government, the citizens and businesses?”