Migrant Bus row: Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma calls Congress 'double standard'

Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma bashed out at Congress for playing politics at the time of Covid-19 crisis and called it 'double standard'. The statement comes after the Rajasthan Government had sent Rs 36 lakh bill to Uttar Pradesh Government in connection with the buses used for evacuating stranded Kota students.

Lucknow(Uttar Pradesh): Hours after Rajasthan govt had sent Rs 36 lakh bill to Uttar Pradesh Government in connection with the buses used for evacuating stranded Kota students, Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma accused Congress of playing politics at the time of Covid-19 crisis by calling it 'double standard' . State Transport Minister Ashok Katariya was also present at the press conference.

"Real face of Congress is revealed. On one hand, they are sending bills for sending back stranded students and on the other hand they are deploying buses to ferry migrants. Uttar Pradesh govt is already making efforts to help the migrants by arranging 27,000 buses", Sharma said while addressing a press conference at Lok Bhawan.

Sharma went on to add, "Uttar Pradesh govt had already paid a bill of Rs 19 lakh on May 5 that was raised by Rajasthan government. They had accepted our request to bring back the stranded students and asked us to provide the transport for the same".

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"We estimated that there were around 10,000 stranded students belonging to our state. Hence, we had sent 560 buses for their evacaution. Later, it was revealed that around 12,000 students were stuck but we had less number of buses. So, we had requested Rajasthan govt to provided more buses. Alteast 94 buses were provided to the Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) by Rajasthan Roadways and the bill for the same(Rs 19 lakh) had been paid on May 5".

"Congress wants to be in limelight as they were not concerned with the fit vehicles. Party should apologise to the migrants for hurting their sentiments", Sharma added.

Adding his view, Ashok Katariya said, "Congress has shown its double standards by sending the bill in connection with the evacuation of stranded Kota students. This is political gimmicks."