Bus row: Mayawati sides with BJP govt to slam Cong, Pilot calls it petty politics over migrants

She further targeted the Congress by comparing the demand for Rs 38 lakh with its offer to run hundreds of buses for migrant labourers in UP.

“… On the other hand, how appropriate or human is this political game of sending migrant labourers to their home?”
she asked.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot accused the UP government of indulging in “petty politics” by not accepting the Congress offer to run buses for migrants.

Responding to Pilot’s charge, his UP counterpart Dinesh Sharma accused the Congress-led Rajasthan government of double standards over the demand for the Rs 36 lakh bill and the party’s bus offer for migrants. The UP government has cleared the bill.

“The Congress needs to introspect and apologise to the nation and the migrants publicly for its act. Doing politics by raking up new issues reflects narrow mindedness,” he told reporters in Lucknow.

The Congress had arranged hundreds of buses to ferry migrants in UP. The UP government declined the offer, saying many of them were two-wheelers, ambulances and autorickshaws, and others were not fit to run.

Sharma clarified that while the Uttar Pradesh government had arranged for 560 buses as it was expecting about 10,000 students. But the actual number turned out to be 12,000, and the Rajasthan Government was requested to send their buses to ferry the extra students to the UP border, he said. The first demand for payment was made on April 27-28, following which a reminder was sent on May 8, he said. The UP government finally cleared the dues on May 20, according to the deputy chief minister.

He wondered if it was appropriate for the Rajasthan government to charge fares at this time of crisis.

WITH PTI INPUTS