New Delhi: A war of words has broken out among the UP govt and Congress party over the list of 1,000 buses offered by the latter to transport migrant workers to their native place.
UP govt today said that list of buses offered by Congress contains registration number of two-wheelers and cars. After inspecting the details, the state government also released official data of the same, showing discrepancies in the Congress list.
As per the data, there are 31 autos, 69 ambulance/trucks in the Congress list of 1049 vehicles while there is no info about 70 vehicles in the Congress list of 1049 vehicles.
The Transport Department also conduction inspection of 492 vehicles and found that validity period of 59 buses had expired while 29 had no insurance papers.
The Congress, however, rejected the claim, challenging Yogi Adityanath’s government to conduct a “physical verification” of the buses.
‘Congress caught in its own web of deceit’
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya accused the party of coming up with another scam. “The Congress has got trapped in its own net of deceit,” he tweeted in Hindi.
बसों की लिस्टo में ऑटोरिक्शाt और बाइक के नंबर डालकर कांग्रेस कर रही गुमराह! अपने ही छल के जाल में फंस गई कांग्रेस, बसों की लिस्टि में भी निकला घोटाला #CongressKaBusGhotala
— Keshav Prasad Maurya (@kpmaurya1) May 19, 2020
He further called it a “Congress “scam”. “The ‘bus ghotaala” (bus scam) now is the latest addition to the Bofors, 2G, Coalgate and Commonwealth Games,”he tweeted in Hindi.
UP minister Sidharth Nath Singh said many of the vehicles that Congress has arranged to ferry migrant labourers are in fact smaller vehicles such as motorbikes and cars or autorickshaws.
We have done preliminary inquiry & it has come to surface that out of the buses for which they sent details, many are turning out to be 2-wheelers, autos & goods carriers. It’s unfortunate, Sonia Gandhi should answer why they are committing this fraud: Sidharth Nath Singh, UP Min pic.twitter.com/IUWD0LKwuF
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) May 19, 2020
The row erupted on May 16 when Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra offered to provide 1,000 buses for migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh, stranded in other states because of the coronavirus lockdown.
The Congress initially claimed that the state’s BJP government was ignoring the offer with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath refusing even to give an appointment to a party delegation.
