The policy of providing buses and trains to transportmigrant workers was poorly designed, coordinated and implemented, senior Congressleader P Chidambaram said on Friday, as he slammed the government for the”belated” decision on their transportation while lakhs of people hadbegun their trek home.
His sharp attack on the government came over the death of 14migrant workers in a train accident in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad. The workerssleeping on rail tracks were crushed to death by a goods train on Fridaymorning.
“Two days ago I had tweeted why the central and stategovernments are oblivious of the fact that thousands of migrant workers arestill trudging to their home states,” Chidambaram said.
“It is obvious that the transport policy of providingbuses and trains to transport migrant workers was poorly designed, planned,coordinated and implemented,” he said in a series of tweets.
The decision to provide buses and trains was”hopelessly belated”, he alleged, adding that lakhs of persons hadalready begun their trek to their home states when the decision was made.
Once the policy was announced, the government should havegone to the rescue of the trekkers and provided buses or trains to them tocontinue their journey, the former Union minister said.
“The tragedy that happened this morning could have beenavoided if governments had gone to the rescue of the migrant workers intime,” Chidambaram said.