BJP’s false claim of centre paying 85% train fare of migrants travel exposed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. BJP should immediately apologise
MUMBAI| The Bhartiya Janta Party’s (BJP) unfounded claim that the central government is bearing 85% of train fare to repatriate migrants has been exposed.
In a statement to the court, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who was representing the central government said that the state governments bore the entire cost of the train tickets. This has exposed the hypocrisy of the BJP. The party’s state president Chandrakant Patil should immediately apologise to the people, demanded Sachin Sawant, general secretary and spokesperson of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC).
Sachin Sawant further informed that even though the state government was bearing all the expenses for the train tickets of the migrant workers, the BJP leaders were repeatedly misleading people by making a false claim.
Chandrakant Patil, the BJP state president had made the false statement that 85% of the travel expenses of these migrant workers were being borne by the central government and the remaining 15% by the state government. Apart from Patil, other senior leaders of BJP including Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Prakash Javadekar too had made the false claim. Despite being questioned by the Supreme Court, the Center was reluctant to show the order copy in the court.
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress had openly challenged BJP state president Patil to show the order paper or apologise to the people as the party could not tolerate the false propaganda. However, BJP never accepted the challenge. Now that the false claim has been exposed. Sawant, however, expressed his anger that the entire BJP, including Chandrakant Patil, should apologise to the people. He also demanded that the BJP be included in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most lying political party in the world.
In a statement to the court on behalf of the central government, Solicitor General Mehta said that the fare for the special Shramik is paid either by the originating state or the receiving one. It is clear the Modi government has not spent a single penny on the travel expenses of migrants’ workers. Again, the BJP’s false claim has been exposed.
The BJP leaders are conspiring to tarnish the image of the opposition party by politicising the Corona crisis. And sadly they politicised the sensitive issue of migrant workers. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal is leading from the front. While the state government has been demanding 80 trains per day, only 40 trains are being provided by the railways. As soon as the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government exposed railways stand, the Railway Minister sought the list of migrants for 146 trains overnight. It was not possible for the railways to arrange such a large number of trains and many trains had to be cancelled. The train schedule was completely disrupted and huge crowds of passengers were seen at various railway stations in Mumbai. All this was done to tarnish the image of the state government.
The BJP government neither provided enough trains for migrant workers nor offered concessions in train fares. Instead of giving relief to the migrants, railways made the cost of train fare dearer by 50 rupees. They added superfast charge of 30 rupees and an additional 20 rupees which were utterly insensitive and shameful Sawant also said that the BJP has cheated ordinary common people in an attempt to get the state government in trouble.
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