Yogi Adityanath govt framed UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu to hide its failure in addressing migrants’ problems: Jitin Prasada

BAREILLY: Former Union minister and Congress leader Jitin Prasada said the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh had failed to help migrant workers heading home after they had lost their livelihoods due to the unplanned and abrupt lockdown. He also demanded that UP Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu be released from jail immediately and all the charges against him be withdrawn.
Addressing a press conference at his residence in Shahjahanpur on Tuesday, Prasada said, “Congress had offered buses to ferry poor migrant workers stranded at UP border, but BJP played politics and framed UP Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu in a false case and sent him to jail. They did this to hide their incompetence in addressing the migrants’ issues.”
Prasada said the lockdown was imposed suddenly without thinking about poor migrant workers. “The lockdown is the biggest blunder made by the BJP government at the Centre as it was imposed without giving any time to the people to brace for it. This is the reason why the lockdown failed as people started migrating. The migrant workers didn’t have any other option other than returning home to their native states on foot. No arrangements for transport were made for them,” he said.
“It was the largest migration in Indian history since Independence. The government did not have any plan for it. When we offered a helping hand to the migrants by offering to ferry them home in buses and by setting up food camps, the BJP government got nervous and started weaving a conspiracy against our party leaders and workers. There is no documentary evidence against our state president Ajay Kumar Lallu, and he should be released from jail immediately.”
Ajay Kumar Lallu was arrested on May 20 on the allegations that he provided fake documents regarding buses for ferrying migrant workers back to Uttar Pradesh from Rajasthan during the lockdown.