Lucknow, May 18: The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday accepted the request of senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi to permit 1,000 buses arranged by her party to leave the state borders with stranded migrants. The approval comes a day after reports claimed that the government is likely to discard the proposal to ferry back migrants in Congress-run buses. CM Yogi Adityanath Says His Govt Is Committed to Ensure Safe Return of Migrant Labourers.

Awanish Awasthi, Additional Chief Secretary (Home), sent a letter to the office of Priyanka - the Congress' state unit in-charge - asking her to provide details of the buses along with the names of drivers at the earliest. Awasthi stated that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has accepted the proposal sent by her on May 16.

Letter Sent by Awanish Awasthi to Priyanka Gandhi

In the letter sent to the Chief Minister's Office on May 16, Priyanka had requested for the permission to ferry back stranded migrant workers in Ghazipur region of eastern UP. She also sought permit to run buses from the Noida border of western UP.

“We want to run 500 buses from the Ghazipur border in Ghaziabad and a similar number of buses from the Noida border. The Congress party will bear the expense for the same. We will observe all the protocols while helping these migrant workers reach home. We seek permission to run these 1,000 buses,” read the statement issued by her office.

The Yogi Adityanath government, meanwhile, announced on Sunday that the state would ensure no stranded migrant in UP is forced to embark upon a foot journey to commute to their native places. Teams will be designated in every police station to ensure that the migrants are not travelling on foot, bike or other dangerous forms of commutation. The order came in the aftermath of 24 labourers being killed in a road accident in Auraiya on Saturday.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 18, 2020 04:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).